SOMS is moving from transaction monitoring to a comprehensive view of the legal gambling market

PlayCity, Ukraine’s gambling regulator, has signed an agreement with Kitsoft to develop the second stage of the State Online Gambling Monitoring System (SOMS). The move marks a qualitative shift in the system’s capabilities — from recording individual financial transactions to building a comprehensive picture of how the licensed gambling industry actually operates in Ukraine.

The first stage of SOMS was launched in test mode in April 2026. It collects data on financial transactions conducted by gambling operators, including the acceptance of bets, payout of winnings, refunds to players, and other transactions. In effect, the first stage of the system serves as a financial control tool that makes it possible to track the movement of money, but does not show what is happening within the game itself.

The second stage significantly expands the system’s capabilities. SOMS will now record game results, track transactions involving gaming substitutes for the hryvnia, and monitor the parameters and operating modes of gaming machines. In other words, the state will be able to see the entire chain, from the moment a player deposits funds and places a bet to the specific outcome of the game and the actual payout of winnings.

This represents a fundamental change in the logic of oversight. Previously, the regulator and other supervisory authorities primarily reviewed reporting after the fact, once transactions had already taken place. Now the focus is shifting toward continuous, virtually uninterrupted digital monitoring of the actual operations of licensed gambling operators in a mode approaching real time.

The accumulation of a large volume of information is not an end in itself for SOMS. The main objective of the system’s second stage is to enable the timely detection of anomalies: suspicious transactions, unusual betting patterns, signs of manipulation of game outcomes, or violations of responsible gambling principles. It is the speed at which deviations can be identified, rather than simply the fact that they are recorded, that makes the system a truly effective regulatory tool.

It is also important to consider who will have access to SOMS data. In addition to PlayCity itself, the information will be available to the National Bank of Ukraine, the State Financial Monitoring Service, the Ministry of Finance, and other government agencies. This indicates that gambling oversight is gradually ceasing to be a narrowly sector-specific function and is becoming part of a broader, coordinated system of financial, tax, and security oversight of money flows within this sector of the economy.

For licensed businesses, such a level of transparency should, in principle, become an advantage rather than an additional burden. An operator that complies with financial regulations and prioritizes player protection will have the ability to document and demonstrate the integrity of its processes in real time, from the placement of bets to the generation of outcomes on gaming machines. This could strengthen the case for the legal segment of the market in the eyes of players, partners, and the state. After all, oversight creates predictability, and predictability creates a safer gaming environment for players. This is something no illegal operator can claim.

At the same time, illegal gambling remains completely outside the scope of this monitoring system: such operators are not integrated into SOMS and are not subject to any of the oversight mechanisms described above. This is creating an increasingly visible divide between the transparent legal market, whose data is simultaneously accessible to multiple government authorities, and the shadow segment.