Ukraine’s gambling regulator PlayCity has marked its first year of operations by reporting significant progress in licensing, tax collection and enforcement efforts since replacing KRAIL.
Over the last year, the Ministry of Digital Transformation collaborated with PlayCity to distribute 250 licenses that generated more than ₴569 million ($12.8 million) in license fee revenue. These licenses included 11 for gambling operators, three for lotteries, and 213 for suppliers of gaming equipment.
During the previous year, PlayCity increased its efforts to combat illegal gambling and imposed fines of more than ₴988 million for noncompliance with regulations and approximately ₴80 million for violating advertising laws.
In addition, PlayCity blocked over 4,100 illegal gambling-related websites and removed more than 700 social media pages promoting unlicensed gambling services. PlayCity noted that the average time it takes to block a website has been reduced to approximately one day, enabling quicker enforcement actions.
In the previous month, PlayCity added a new complaint submission system for reporting illegal gambling advertising and will levy large fines against gambling operators found in violation of such activity.
After the reinstatement of required annual reporting by gambling operators, PlayCity has stated that all licensed operators remain in full compliance with that requirement. This marks the first time lottery operators are required to submit an annual report.
In the future, PlayCity intends to expand its digital monitoring capabilities, enhance risk-based regulatory oversight, and advance new legislative reform. PlayCity’s priorities are to help eliminate illegal gambling activity, increase market transparency, and increase the effectiveness of regulation through improved digital integration.