Ukraine shuts down 4,500 illegal online casinos in 2024


Ukraine shuts down 4,500 illegal online casinos in 2024

Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation reported blocking over 4,500 illegal online casinos in 2024 as part of its crackdown on unauthorized gambling.

In a Thursday press release, the ministry stated that the crackdown follows President Volodymyr Zelensky’s directive to curb gambling in Ukraine.

The ministry has also contacted Apple and Google to request the removal of gambling apps and set up a fast-track process with Apple to streamline the effort. However, apps account for only a small portion of the blocked casinos, with 92 removed from Apple’s App Store and 26 from Google’s Play Market. The remaining 4,460 online casinos were websites taken down by Ukraine’s State Special Communications Service, according to the press release.

Although gambling was legalized in Ukraine in 2020, illegal online casinos were a concern even before Russia’s 2022 invasion, with the war further exacerbating the issue.

In September 2021, Ukraine’s State Fiscal Service (SFS) uncovered an illegal online casino employing 60 people with an annual turnover exceeding $30 million. Following the 2022 invasion, gambling addiction among military personnel also emerged as a concern. A military psychologist, in an April 2024 Kyiv Post investigation, described it as a coping mechanism for stress relief.

In April 2024, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) estimated the annual turnover of online casino gambling at around Hr.150 billion ($3.8 billion), or over Hr.400 million ($10.1 million) per day.

For comparison, total donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in 2023 amounted to approximately Hr.46 billion ($1.2 billion), just a third of the amount spent on gambling. Additionally, mounting gambling debts, especially from illegal online casinos operating out of Russia, pose a security risk, as indebted soldiers may become targets for subversion by Moscow’s security services, sources told Kyiv Post at the time.


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