Ukraine Continues to Crack Down on Illegal Gambling Sites

Ukraine has continued to crack down on the illegal gambling market, as the country is trying to uproot offshore and black-market operations, many of which authorities suspect of ties to the Russian Federation.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has shuttered 133 illegal online casinos in the latest enforcement action. The websites are said to have generated UAH 5 billion quarterly in revenue, approximately $125 million.

Illegal Gambling Acted Against in Ukraine as Russia’s War Carries On

The SBU collaborated with the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection, the National Commission for the State Regulation of Electronic Communications, and other organizations that have concentrated their efforts on uprooting illegal gambling operators.

Most recently, a collective of techies was formed in a bid to aid the regulator and security services’ efforts to move against the black and illegal gambling market. The Association of Ukrainian Gambling Operators (AUGO) has been helping by providing software solutions that have allowed authorities to be more efficient in identifying and limiting threats.

AUGO has also said that the majority of the websites in the latest sting were tied to Russia. Russia has used gambling to fund its war against Ukraine, with unsuspecting Ukrainians bankrolling the aggressor state’s war against the homeland. Oleksandr Kohut, AUGO’s president, has said that the organization had the means to turf out illegal gambling operators

Failure to restrict the access of illegal gambling operators in Ukraine has led to the downfall of the previous gambling regulator, KRAIL, which was replaced by PlayCity.

Ukraine’s Still Struggling to Restrict Illegal Gambling

The former head of the now-defunct regulator, Ivan Rudyi, was arrested in December, and he stands accused of supporting Russia’s aggression against the country because he had failed to act in cases that demonstrated an association between Russia and illegal gambling sites.   

He has been succeeded by his deputy, who is now entrusted with cleaning house. However, the SBU has also been more closely involved with shuttering illegal gambling operators, as the secret service now sees them as a threat.

Earlier in the way, President b vowed that Ukraine would do more to rid itself of illegal gambling websites that the commander-in-chief said were funding Russia’s war against Ukraine.