From October 1, the National Bank of Ukraine introduced a limit on card-to-card transfers of 150 thousand hryvnias per month to restrict the activities of illegal online casinos. This initiative was aimed at preventing the outflow of funds to gambling platforms that not only do not pay taxes, but are also not regulated by the rules of responsible gaming. However, the problem of illegal casinos turned out to be more persistent and flexible than expected.
The danger of gambling addiction in Ukraine
The growth of gambling addiction has become particularly acute among military personnel, who, having received payments for their service, sometimes fall into the trap of gambling. Despite steps taken by President Volodymyr Zelensky, such as the April 2024 decree aimed at combating gambling addiction, the problem remains. State policy has included restrictions on financial flows to illegal casinos that operate on the basis of bank transfers and actively use schemes using “drops” — fake bank cards.
How bypassing restrictions works
Illegal casinos quickly learned to circumvent the new restrictions by offering customers alternative ways to top up their accounts. Casino sites such as stawki.bet or bet2fun offer customers transfers to individual cards in state-owned banks or even to accounts with IBAN. Such payments are not subject to the control of the established limits, as they look like ordinary transfers between individuals.
Currently, cards from Oschadbank, previously headed by the current NBU chairman Andriy Pyshny, are actively used in these illegal operations. And although the state is trying to combat this problem, illegal casinos remain accessible, using loopholes in banking systems.
In search of an effective solution
Despite the statements and the introduction of restrictions, no real benefit has been achieved in the fight against illegal gambling platforms so far. The proposed measures are rather symbolic, as illegal platforms quickly find new ways to circumvent restrictions by using the services of state-owned banks. This calls into question the effectiveness of the NBU's policy and prompts consideration of other control methods, possibly technological and legal, to more strictly prosecute illegal gambling structures.
