The Republic of Armenia is continuing to reform and work on the gambling sector. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his team are working on stricter regulations and a framework for licensed operators, and continue increasing the pressure on unlicensed ones.
As the measures are being discussed, authorities plan to block payments to unlicensed operators. They will require local banks to reject Merchant Category Code (MCC) 7995 transactions, as it is used for gambling payments. Banks can be accepted only if they originate from licensed Armenian operators.
The reform also includes stricter anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) obligations. Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan and State Revenue Committee chairman Rustam Badasyan will supervise the implementation process.
At the same time, Armenia is working on creating a better monitoring system to connect operators with state infrastructure at all times of the day. The system will introduce regulations’ oversight og gambling activities and payments.
The State Revenue Committee is currently going through the selection of a private software partner to create that monitoring platform.
The Ministry of Finance is preparing the groundwork for the gambling regulator and other details that will be needed in the future.
Several new player protection tools have been introduced, such as mandatory self-exclusion, stop-play tools, and some other restrictions for preventing bankrupt players from accessing gambling platforms.
In 2025, the authorities increased online gambling licensing fees and created a new 10% turnover tax on operators. The fee will increase through 2028.
The updated laws also require operators to use Armenia’s local domain system, introducing geo-blocking and reviewing winnings taxation.
