Israel has announced that it will stop accepting bets on horse racing. Such a decision negatively affected the income of lottery companies, but the total profit from the gambling business in 2018 increased by 15%.Over the past few years, the Israeli Ministry of Finance has continued to impose more and more bans on gambling. For example, in 2016, the authorities announced that they would restrict the lottery sector, and already in 2017, by a government decision, all slot machines were banned. However, many representatives of the gambling business did not agree with this decision, saying that the restrictions could provoke the people of Israel to play even more, but already illegally: Excessive tightening of the rules regarding the gambling business will soon lead to the emergence of a shadow gambling market. But, despite the difficulties, the lottery business in 2018 has already brought the country about ten billion shekels. It is also expected that by the end of this year, Israeli lottery companies will transfer 10.7 billion shekels to the budget. Earlier it was reported that poker tournaments in Israel could become legal, but only if the government passes a legalization law. The proposal for legalization was made by Sharin Haskel, a member of the Likud party.
