SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Armenia is reported to be tightening up its gambling regulations, with measures due to impact both the location and size of betting venues.
Reported by Armenian media outlets, during a government meeting Finance Minister Atom Janjughazyan stated that bookmakers will now be required to operate solely at locations which are a certain distance away from ‘heavily populated areas, as well as educational or cultural institutions, governmental offices or hospitals’.
As it stands, bookmakers are permitted to operate across Armenia, with the majority of venues located within densely populated residential areas.
However, the new regulations mean that bookmakers in Yerevan will have to relocate their offices to more than 150 metres away from the listed areas. Elsewhere, the distance is 100 metres, with the exception of administrative centers of Syunik, Meghri and Tavush where the limit is set at 50 metres.
“This is negatively impacting the society by creating the dangers of easily being allured with gambling,” said Janjughazyan. “In particular, such facilities should have additional premises, in particular, a foyer, which is to be separated from the general gambling hall for checking the IDs of people.”
According to Janjughazyan, the measures were primarily based upon the international experiences of gambling, in addition to ‘peculiarities of the country, including the population density’.
