The European gambling market is turning into an arena of conflict due to fundamental inequality in regulation. Governments protect state lotteries and horse race betting as “national cultural heritage,” granting them preferential tax regimes and exemptions from restrictions. Private businesses, by contrast, face high taxes, strict regulation, and discriminatory rules. In Sweden and the United Kingdom, racetrack associations are demanding even greater tax pressure on online ca

Recently, the Ministry of Digital Transformation presented its plan for further reform of the gambling sector. It represents a comprehensive set of measures aimed at addressing key issues related to taxation, as well as the introduction of a Unified Register, which will serve as the foundation for the State Online Monitoring System (SOMS). All these changes are intended to simplify interaction between players, gambling operators, and the regulator PlayCity, and finally resolv

The state agency PlayCity strengthened oversight of the gambling and lottery market in February, demonstrating a comprehensive approach: tough action against the shadow market alongside support for the legal segment. A total of 226 illegal gambling websites were blocked, and requests were issued to block 87 TikTok accounts and 27 Meta pages for illegal advertising. Since the start of operations, access to more than 3,000 illegal resources has been removed. This represents a s

The first stage of the lottery market reform has been completed: the PlayCity competition has identified three official operators — “M.S.L.”, “UNL”, and “Patriot”. Real-time electronic reporting has been introduced, along with unique QR codes on tickets and terminals, monitoring of sales and prize payouts. The market is finally emerging from a long-standing “grey” zone: previously there were no licensing conditions, no transparent accounting, and no real accountability — now

We all clearly understand that in any country the gambling market consists of both a legal and a shadow segment. How “comfortable” illegal operators feel depends on a balanced regulatory policy that gives legal businesses an advantage over the grey market. However, this only sounds good in theory. In practice, achieving this balance is far more difficult than it seems. Even well-developed gambling jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom suffer from the growing strength of il

The European gambling market continues to develop dynamically. While in Ukraine we are still at the stage of defining terminology in tax legislation and developing adequate approaches to advertising, in Europe discussions are already underway about the possibility of supranational regulation of the gambling sector. Today, proposals to unify gambling taxation across all EU countries and introduce common tax rates are being actively debated. Against this backdrop, a logical que

Current restrictions in Ukrainian legislation create an illogical segmentation: gambling companies are allowed to sponsor sporting events, yet prohibited from sponsoring industry-specific events — exhibitions, conferences, and round tables. While mass advertising indeed requires safeguards to protect players from excessive exposure, B2B forums serve as platforms for professional networking, technology showcases, and constructive dialogue with regulators. In this space, legal

The Western gambling market is well established and demonstrates steady revenue growth. However, one of the key challenges of such markets is that once a certain threshold is reached, the growth rate slows significantly due to high levels of regulatory and tax burden. Another obstacle is the extremely high “barrier to entry” for new companies. In these markets, they are forced to compete with powerful gambling corporations that possess far greater financial and other resource

Currently, Ukrainian legislation imposes significant restrictions on gambling advertising. Legal gambling operators are forced to operate within a rigid framework in which, unfortunately, prohibitions far outweigh opportunities. This places them at a disadvantage compared to illegal operators, who use any advertising methods — both online and offline — without regard to restrictions. However, examples of reasonable regulation do exist. One such example is how the law permits

The recent PlayCity competition for official lottery operator status, the results of which were announced on January 28, marked the first tangible step toward bringing Ukraine’s lottery market out of the “gray” zone. Only three companies — M.S.L., UNL, and Patriot — advanced to the final stage under the updated rules. At first glance, this may appear to preserve the existing hierarchy of market players. However, behind this formality lies a strategic transition from a regulat

It is commonly believed that the Western market is a benchmark for the sustainable development of the gambling industry. Many European countries where gambling is legalized demonstrate record growth in online GGR, an increase in the number of gambling companies, and a growing player base. This has been made possible by the systematic development of the regulatory environment, which allows for maintaining a balance between expanding business opportunities and protecting player

Moody’s Outlook 2026 highlights a critical gap: artificial intelligence in iGaming consumes significantly more resources than it generates in profit. Operators invest in experience personalization, behavioral analytics, security, and marketing, yet only 5% of projects achieve financial returns. The remaining projects burn budgets on computing power, data engineering, and opaque algorithms that are difficult to interpret or improve. AI effectiveness is limited to specific task

A scandal involving an anonymous trader on the Polymarket platform, who earned $436,000 from the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, has exposed a systemic vulnerability in prediction markets. A new account, registered in December 2025, placed a $32,000 bet just hours before a Delta Force raid on January 3, 2026 — the probability that “Maduro will lose power by January 31” jumped from 6.5% to 11% ahead of Trump’s announcement. This is a classic insider trade: acces

Problem gambling is not a critical issue for the Ukrainian gambling market. The share of potential problem gamblers typically accounts for 0.5–1% of the total number of players. Nevertheless, gambling addiction does exist and therefore requires targeted countermeasures. There are several mechanisms to address this challenge — ranging from state regulation through systems such as the State Online Monitoring System (SOMS) to technical solutions developed and implemented by the

Gambling addiction cannot be cured retroactively; it is prevented. Europe has proven this through various self-restriction tools that give players control without total pressure. In 2020, Ukraine laid the groundwork: the Self-Exclusion Register is being expanded, operators are required to offer counseling and monitoring, and PlayCity is preparing a digital relaunch via Diia for instant online applications. Cyprus created the National Self-Exclusion Programme (NSEP) under the

One of the key events in the gambling market last year was the emergence of a new regulator, PlayCity . It was established to streamline and strengthen regulatory mechanisms, automate the process of issuing and revoking gambling licenses, and combat illegal operators. In each of these areas, certain steps have already been taken, inspiring optimism about the future of regulation in the industry. However, to fully establish effective processes, many more changes across multipl

In the first 10 months of 2025, the legal gambling market paid UAH 14.6 billion in taxes. This figure is not only impressive but also demonstrates that the industry has the potential to be a significant revenue source for the state. Full statistics for the year will be released soon, but it can already be noted that this young market shows considerable prospects. At the same time, expectations should not be overstated, as this success has its “shadow side.” According to Henna

Over the past several years, lotteries have been the subject of active discussion within the gambling sector. Unfortunately, these discussions have not focused on industry development or investment potential, but rather on the illegal activities of lottery operators, imitation of gambling, non-payment of taxes, and avoidance of licensing fees. Finally, the newly created regulator, PlayCity, has paid attention to this situation and announced an open tender for obtaining lotter

Traditionally, at the end of the year we sum up the performance of Ukraine’s legal gambling market. Despite the fact that the market continues to operate amid tax and regulatory uncertainty, it still generates significant revenues for the state budget. Over the first ten months of 2025 alone, gambling has already contributed more than UAH 14.5 billion to the budget in taxes. Given current trends, this figure may reach UAH 16–17 billion by the end of the year. According to the

In developed countries, lotteries are one of the key sources of revenue for state budgets within the gambling sector. Through active regulation of the industry, governments receive significant amounts in taxes and fees. In Ukraine, however, the situation remains uncertain. As a result, we have a multi-million-dollar sector of the economy that is not controlled by the state in any way and creates problems for legal businesses. The first steps toward addressing this issue have