Ukraine aims for transparent, predictable gambling market, deputy minister says

Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation is developing a state online monitoring system for gambling, with 29 of the 30 licensed operators connected in test mode, deputy minister Natalia Denikeieva told Yogonet. The ministry expects to launch the full system by the end of the year, and operators will be required to use it from next year, she said.

Denikeieva, Deputy Minister for Digital Economy Development at the Ministry of Digital Transformation, said her ministry handles policy and drafts the legal framework, while the state agency PlayCity serves as regulator, supervising daily market operations and enforcement. She said this split of authority replaced an earlier setup in which all power and responsibility sat with a single body.

According to the interview, the monitoring system will deliver live figures covering wagers, winnings, returned funds and the income of operators. Denikeieva said 28 operators were connected when the interview took place, with the remaining three still to join, and that joining during the test phase is optional. She said operators will get an extra six months to connect once the system is fully live.

On licensing, Denikeieva said operators can now apply digitally for the licences they need, which she said matters especially for B2B companies that may not know the Ukrainian jurisdiction well. She said draft changes covering gambling regulation, taxation and lotteries have reached the final approval stage and she hopes they will be registered in the Verkhovna Rada soon, ideally within the year.

The proposed changes include player-protection measures intended to bring Ukrainian legislation closer to international standards, and a move to stop cash payments within gambling because of risks to transparency and the potential for corruption, Denikeieva said. She said the ministry's goal is a market that is transparent, digitally enabled and predictable.

Denikeieva said Ukraine still has a sizeable illegal market and that, over the past year, work with PlayCity has led to more than 20,000 illegal online casino websites being blocked. She said shutting down websites on its own is insufficient and that the government has begun cooperating with the National Bank of Ukraine, which oversees the banking and payment system, and with financial monitoring authorities, though she said she could not disclose details of measures still being developed.

On advertising, she said PlayCity is seeking to curb the chances for illegal operators to promote themselves while widening promotional openings for licensed businesses. She said that after talks with international technology platforms including Google, Meta and TikTok, legal gambling operators gained the ability to advertise their products officially in Ukraine.

Denikeieva said Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has adopted the country's first strategy to prevent gambling addiction, under which responsibility is shared among players, operators and government institutions. She said around 40 government authorities are involved, that the strategy covers the next 10 years, and that the roadmap sets out tasks for government bodies, operators and other stakeholders for 2027–2029.

She said the legal sector contributed UAH 17.4bn to the state budget last year, equivalent to approximately $388m. She said one indicator of a successful reform would be whether international operators consider the country a viable jurisdiction, and that Ukraine has not yet become a jurisdiction international operators fully understand and trust.