Why Ukraine Needs to Get on Europe's Gambling “Whitelist”

On 14 October, Michel Groothuizen, chairman of the Dutch gambling regulator KSA, made a statement that could change the rules for the entire European market. Following talks held in Dublin this spring between European regulators, Google and Meta, a joint task force has been set up, and KSA is working with Google on a “whitelist” of all licensed gambling organisers in the EU. The logic is simple: anyone who is not on the list is, by definition, in violation, and Google can block them.

Why has Europe taken this step? The Netherlands legalised online gambling five years ago, and according to KSA, about 90% of Dutch online players gamble only with licensed organisers. The money, however, tells a different story: nearly half of all funds wagered still goes to the illegal sector, because those who play in the shadows spend disproportionately more. The regulator openly admitted that fines on illegal providers have produced limited results, as they are hard to collect. That is why KSA is shifting its focus to the infrastructure of the illegal market: payments and online visibility. In other words, rather than chasing every single website, it aims to shut off the “main tap”.

For Ukraine, this signal is highly relevant. Our market has been legal since 2020, and we have a state regulator and a public register of licensees. Yet the fight against illegal casinos is still largely manual: a website gets blocked, and within hours a copy appears at a different address, while the advertising continues on social media and in search results. The Dutch experience shows that even with 90% of players in the legal segment, half of the money flows into the shadows as long as illegal providers remain visible. The winner is not the one who blocks more, but the one who cuts off the path to the player.

The next step is therefore obvious: Ukraine’s licence register should become part of the European whitelist. An illegal casino advertising to Ukrainians would then automatically be flagged as a violator on major platforms, without a separate blocking decision for every “mirror” site. The whitelist changes the very logic of enforcement: instead of “ban what is bad”, the principle becomes “show only what is verified”.

Some may object that Ukraine is not an EU member, so the European list does not concern us. But Ukraine is a candidate for accession and is already aligning its legislation with European standards. Our licences are issued by a state regulator, and the register of licensees is public, so all the necessary groundwork is already in place. Connecting the Ukrainian register to a common system is technically simpler than building our own from scratch. Ukraine should declare its wish to join the European task force now, while the rules of the list are still being shaped.

There is no time to lose. KSA has not yet named a launch date for the list, but as soon as it goes live in the EU, illegal organisers pushed out of European search results will redirect their advertising budgets to places where no such filter exists. If Ukraine is not on the list, within the first months after its launch we will see an influx of illegal casino advertising in the Ukrainian segment of the internet. The best protection is to be on that list from day one.

A licensed organiser pays taxes, verifies the player’s age and complies with the Register of Persons Restricted from Gambling. An illegal one does none of this. Europe has decided that online visibility should be granted only to the former. Ukraine has all the tools to become part of this system: a legal market, a regulator and a public licence register. What remains is to take a step towards Europe.

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