Legal Gambling Is Banned from Advertising, While Illegal Gambling Blankets Everything with Ads

Gambling advertising in Ukraine has hit a crisis, and its consequences are already showing up in the budget. This year, various sources have made it clear that direct tax revenues from the legal industry are falling noticeably. The players, meanwhile, have not gone anywhere. They have simply moved to where there is no licence, no tax and no age verification.

The mechanism is simple. The white market barely advertises at all: the law allows it only late-night airtime between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., plus media and platforms aimed at audiences aged 21 and over. The black market advertises everywhere — on Telegram channels and social media, through spam and mirror sites, without a single risk warning. Someone looking for a place to bet sees the illegal site first. And that is where they go. In this way, restrictions designed to protect players have, in practice, handed the shadow market the entire visible part of the information space.

Under these conditions, a legal gambling organizer is left with effectively one open tool: sponsorship. Yet even that works only within a narrow corridor. Article 22-1 of the Law of Ukraine “On Advertising” by default prohibits gambling organizers from any form of sponsorship, with a single exception: adult sport.

In practice, this is how it works. A legal organizer may sponsor sports teams, individual athletes, competitions and their broadcasts. The brand can appear on kits, in a tournament’s name, in the arena during a match, and in the broadcast itself, its recording, replays and highlights — but only a media outlet holding the broadcast rights may air them. At the same time, outdoor advertising, branding on public transport and the metro, and placement in any premises other than gambling venues and enclosed arenas during the competition itself are all prohibited. Children’s and youth sport, as well as product placement in shows and films, are entirely off-limits. Legally, such a partnership rests on two contracts: a sponsorship agreement between the organizer and a federation or league, and a licensing agreement between the rights holder and the media outlet.

Crucially, sponsorship leaves no room for anonymity. It means a licensed legal entity, a contract, bank payments and a brand everyone can see. An illegal casino cannot sign a contract with a league, because doing so would mean stepping out of the shadows. That is precisely why sponsorship is the most responsible and transparent way for the gambling industry to be present in the public space.

Opponents will argue that any visibility of gambling fuels addiction, so advertising should be removed altogether. But illegal advertising is already here — massive, aggressive and unrestricted. By denying visibility only to those who pay taxes and verify age, the state does not reduce the number of players; it merely decides where they will go.

Hence the conclusions. First: the pressure on the black market must extend to advertising as well — its ads on social media and Telegram must be blocked as systematically as its websites are, and those who place and pay for them must be held accountable. Second: a dialogue is needed between the state, the market and the sports community on expanding sponsorship opportunities as a more responsible and open form of advertising. Third: a professional discussion of advertising and sponsorship rules is needed so that they become clear and predictable, and so that fines are differentiated by level of risk, instead of the same UAH 5.19 million applying to a technical error and a deliberate violation alike. Fourth: the reform must be completed with a comprehensive tax bill.

If nothing changes, the forecast is simple: by the end of 2026, direct tax revenues from the industry will turn out lower than in 2025, while the shadow market will have grown. As long as legal gambling is banned from advertising and illegal gambling advertises at full throttle, it is the illegal market that speaks for the legal one.

Anton Kuchukhidze, Chairman of the Ukrainian Gambling Council, exclusively for Ukrainian News