Results of the Year After Legalization of Gambling in Ukraine: Billions in the Budget and the Fight Against the Shadow Sector

How the Gambling and Lottery Market Has Changed in Ukraine

According to Главком: The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine oversees transformations in this area. To implement them, the State Agency PlayCity was established, which resumed licensing of gambling organizers and lottery operators in 2025. It is worth noting that for more than 12 years before the relaunch of the lottery market in 2025, the state did not receive any licensing payments from this business.

In one year of reform, the PlayCity agency ensured budget revenue, resumed licensing, is combating the illegal market, implementing player protection, and developing a monitoring system. Improvement of the legislative framework is planned for 2026.

PlayCity has built systematic interaction with law enforcement agencies, particularly with the Bureau of Economic Security. The agency also established operational communication with Meta, TikTok, Viber, and Google to stop violations in online advertising. An important step was the development of a mechanism to limit the participation of military personnel in gambling, created by the Ministry of Digital Transformation together with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Currently, this draft resolution is undergoing public discussion.

Achieved Results and Future Plans

The key element of the reform was the introduction of the State Online Monitoring System (GOSM), to which legal organizers are now connecting. For the first time through the "Dія" application, representatives of civil society were elected to the Independent Anti-Corruption Expert Group at PlayCity through open voting. The Ministry of Digital Transformation has already prepared three draft laws with amendments to the Tax Code, the Gambling Law, and the Lottery Law, which are now under public discussion.

Thanks to the measures adopted, the state budget of Ukraine received over 1.7 billion UAH in licensing fees from gambling in 2025, nearly 17 billion UAH in tax revenues from this sector, and more than 72 million UAH from lottery operator licenses. Notably, in the five years since the legalization of the industry, budget revenues from it have increased more than 80 times. As noted by Natalia Denikeeva,

"legal gambling organizers pay over 17 billion UAH to the state budget annually"

.

In the fight against the illegal market, over 3,500 websites with illegal gambling have been blocked in Ukraine, more than 500 accounts on social media with illegal advertising have been removed, and sanctions have been applied to 16 bloggers and media outlets. The Ministry of Digital Transformation has implemented financial and time limits on gambling, principles of responsible gaming, new business requirements for monitoring player behavior, and a convenient mechanism for self-restriction of access to gambling on the site.

Thus, the reform demonstrates active steps towards legalization, control, and protection of players' rights while ensuring stable revenue to the treasury. For the post-Soviet space, such a comprehensive approach to regulating the gambling business is quite progressive. Further legislative changes planned for 2026 could further enhance the transparency and safety of the market for all participants.