Patriarchate of Georgia: Legislative initiative regarding casinos was reported with surprisetranslated

The legislative initiative regarding casinos completely surprised us, as there was no previous communication with the Patriarchate of Georgia on this matter, said Archpriest Andreas Jagmaitze, head of the Public Relations Service of the Patriarchate. As he noted, the Patriarchate of Georgia, starting as early as 2017, was the direct initiator and one of the main participants in the process aimed at developing and establishing regulations in the field of gambling.

"Work on this issue has been going on for several years. The process was led by the Catholicos-Patriarch of all Georgia, Sios III, at that time presbyter of the Patriarchal Throne. Some studies were conducted, statistical data was collected and analyzed, the results of which we presented to the public. Finally, the government adopted a whole package of regulations, which was very welcome."

“As for the current legislative initiative, it completely surprised us, as there was no previous communication with the Patriarchate on this matter. So far, there has not been a broad discussion of this matter within the Patriarchate, although I can tell you that the Patriarchate cannot…