Kazakhstan Could Criminalize Influencers Promoting Gambling Content

Kazakhstan is debating whether it should pursue criminal charges against influencers who promote gambling across social media and online. The measure could seem exaggerated, but Kazakhstan is hardly the only jurisdiction to take a dim view of this practice.

Kazakhstan Seeks to Stamp Out Illegal Gambling Ads

A new survey commissioned by GambleAware, a UK charity, has revealed that children are constantly exposed and barraged by gambling content, with 1 in 6 reporting seeing gambling content pushed onto them by a content creator or influencer.

Other jurisdictions, such as the Netherlands, already have specific restrictions that prohibit influential figures – be that content creators or celebrities – from engaging in gambling content at all.

However,  the country’s Financial Monitoring Agency is now seeking to penalize the promotion of gambling, with 34 influencers already identified since the start of the year for their involvement with gambling.

Out of those found to have engaged in the promotion of unauthorized gambling products, 11 have been subjected to administrative fees, with the regulator and lawmakers now debating whether they could potentially charge influencers for aiding illegal gambling and subject them to laws that apply to Ponzi schemes.

This would mean criminal sanctions that bear a much stronger ring than a fine and have deeper implications for individuals involved in the presumed illegal advertising of gambling content.

Presently, public and media advertising of gambling is banned, but the current penalties are not serious enough for most influencers to consider complying. Criminal charges, though, would dissuade many from pursuing their activities, as most of the influencers are prominent and known faces in their home country.

The Bane of Illegal Gambling Sites Slow to Tackle

This is part of a more comprehensive push spearheaded by Kazakhstan as it seeks to restrict the access of illegal gambling sites. Some 17,000 websites have been banned so far in 2025, but they continue to proliferate.

Most brush such bans aside by immediately relaunching mirror websites almost an hour after they go down. Many are planning and having backup websites on standby.