ПРОБЛЕМИ ПРАВОВОГО РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ ГРАЛЬНОГО БІЗНЕСУ ТА ЛОТЕРЕЙ В УКРАЇНІ І ЇХ ВПЛИВ НА ДОКАЗУВАННЯ НЕЗАКОННОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ З ОРГАНІЗАЦІЇ ТА ПРОВЕДЕННЯ АЗАРТНИХ ІГОР, ЛОТЕРЕЙ (СТ. 203-2 КК УКРАЇНИ)

The article is devoted to the analysis of the basic legislation that regulates the spheres of gambling and lotteries, the identification of problems and gaps in the legal regulation of this sphere, which affect the process of proving criminal offenses provided for in Art. 203-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the formation of scientific proposals on ways to solve these problems. The authors draw attention to the fact that the gambling business has always been and will remain a high-risk type of activity characterized by a high level of the shadow sphere, and a number of unsolved problems of legal regulation today help illegal businesses evade criminal responsibility for carrying out illegal activities, because these problems do not allow pre-trial investigation bodies to establish the event of a criminal offense, which is the central element of the subject of proof, primarily during the qualification of such actions as: issuing or conducting lotteries by a person who does not have the status of a lottery operator; the organization or functioning of institutions for the purpose of providing access to gambling games or lotteries conducted on the Internet. As a result, no more than 10% of criminal proceedings initiated under Art. 203-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine end with the court's sentencing. The authors admit that today restrictions or prohibitions in the activity of organizing and conducting gambling games do not hold lotteries, and for the activity and issuance and holding of lotteries, the prohibition of conducting gambling games does not allow to make an unambiguous conclusion, a lottery or a gambling game is conducted based only on visual signs. Therefore, the authors provide a set of features that allow us to distinguish between these types of activities. Also, the problems of special legislation that regulate the procedures for the implementation of these types of activities are clearly defined, and specific ways of solving these problems are proposed for the Parliament, the Government and KRAIL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]