Mongolian officials approved a new law that legalizes sports betting under a special licensing system while explicitly banning all other forms of gambling.
The Cabinet justified these measures as necessary to protect citizens from online fraud and criminal activities, as well as to prevent the outflow of national currency, which is seen as a threat to economic security.
Uchral Nyam-Osor, the Chief cabinet secretary, mentioned:
According to a survey conducted by the National Statistics Committee, 200 economic crimes were registered in 2023, amounting to a loss of MNT 417.2bn (€133m) as of 2024. Mainly young people aged 18-39 were involved in these crimes. Financial investigation data shows that MNT1.7tn or $500m have been transferred from Mongolia to foreign countries.
Although the Communications Regulatory Commission has restricted access to 6,000 domain addresses that conduct online gambling, these sites have changed their links and are still operating. Moreover, the Antimonopoly Agency has imposed fines on law-breaking enterprises, but according to the laws in force, the penalty amounted to just MNT 13m. Therefore, we are going to amend the relevant laws to ban such activities.
The government has also put forward amendments to the Criminal Code to penalize individuals who facilitate illegal gambling by providing access to their payment accounts, electronic money exchanges, telecommunications networks, or email addresses for such activities. Further proposed measures include changes to the Law on Advertising to ban promotions for gambling games and paid puzzles, as well as amendments to the Law on Offenses, introducing fines of MNT 100,000 for individuals caught gambling
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