Until recently, all forms of casino activities, including online casinos, were banned in Ukraine. Gambling activities were outlawed by Yulia Tymoshenko’s government in June 2009. Since then, running online casinos has been illegal. Violators were severely punished with huge fines and prison time.
On August 13, 2020, President Zelensky signed a bill (Law 768-IX) legalizing gambling business in the country. The law gave green light to the activities of online casinos in Ukraine under certain conditions. The following conclusions can be drawn from this law:
- Gamblers must be at least 21 years of age. Casinos must verify the gambler’s age using available means before the person can be allowed to sign up, deposit and bet;
- An online casino operator can only be a legal entity established under the laws of Ukraine. Obviously, foreign companies will not be able to operate (at least officially) in the Ukrainian market. However, in clause 1 of Article 14 of the newly signed gambling law, it is clearly stated that foreign nationals can be heads, accountants and ultimate beneficiaries of such gambling establishments;
- A would-be gambling company must have a minimum authorized capital of at least ₴30 million (approx. $1.1 million);
- Online casino operators must demonstrate a bank guarantee or capital reserves of at least 7,200 minimum wages (approx. $1.5 million);
- Clause 7 of Article 16 of the law states that the gambling operator must have a “self-exclusion” option, allowing gamblers to voluntarily limit their gambling activity for 6 to 36 months. For this purpose, the casino must have an online form. All casinos licensed by Curacao, Malta and many other jurisdictions have similar functionality (but in a more flexible way);
- Casino rules must be written in Ukrainian and English languages (and optionally in any other languages);
- An online casino must have a .UA domain name.
Control over the activities of online casinos and other gambling operators will be provided via a hardware-software system designated in the Law as “State Online Monitoring System”. Each gambling company must connect to this system. The system will track information about bets placed, winnings paid out and other operations. At the time of this writing, the System is yet to be developed; however, the Law allows casinos to operate in full and connect to the System within 6 months after the System has been launched.
There are 11 types of licenses for gambling activities. An online casino must acquire only one 5-year license, which costs 6,500 minimum wages (approx. $1.4 million).
Issues related to income tax on online casinos are still unanswered. Ukraine’s parliament plans to consider the gambling tax rates only after the above-mentioned Online Monitoring System has been launched.
Based on the current law, you can roughly calculate the main initial costs of running an online casino:
- Authorised capital: $1,100,000;
- Security deposit (refundable): $1,500,000;
- License: $1,400,000.
Companies planning to launch an online casino in Ukraine should wait at least several months, since the new law has provided rooms for future additional regulations, amendments to the country’s tax laws, and some other measures that might affect an operator’s decision to open a business in Ukraine. For this reason, it makes sense to monitor the situation around this issue closely, and, if necessary, seek advice from our experts.
2021 Update: What has changed?
This date can be considered the starting point of the online gambling legalization in Ukraine. At the time of writing, more than 30 online casinos have already received their licenses, and the budget revenues have already exceeded ₴700 million (about $26 million). The main provisions of the law analyzed above remain unchanged: companies are required to have a statutory fund of ₴30 million and must buy a license, paying its full cost every year for five years.
So far there is only one casino with a share of foreign capital on the market. We are talking about an international betting company Parimatch, which is headquartered in Cyprus and represented in Ukraine under the same name (their Ukrainian website is pm.ua). Foreign investors are not willing to invest their money in the region because of a range of unresolved issues, such as the taxation system for gambling activities and the launch of an online monitoring system. The tax issue being in limbo makes investors concerned about the lion’s share of their revenues getting eaten up by taxes.
As of today, the largest gambling sites in Ukraine are cosmolot.ua, first.ua, and pin-up.ua. When you first visit any of them, you get the impression that they are just the Ukrainian versions of foreign casinos. There are the same features, sections, rules and other common attributes of any online gambling site, including a variety of game providers (Microgaming, Playtech, Evolution, etc.) and bonus offerings. The list of available payment methods will probably upset an experienced player, as Visa/Mastercard cards and iBox terminals are not convenient for everyone. However, the absence of e-wallets, and even more so cryptocurrencies, is understandable: the state cannot control all the deposits and withdrawals made through these channels. What customers will like is the minimum deposit amount, which in Ukrainian casinos usually does not exceed ₴50 (less than $2), while most foreign sites accept a minimum of $10-$20 deposit.
Hopefully, the government will not delay the regulation of this sphere, as the demand for online gambling is evident and some major operators already want to enter the Ukrainian market. Follow our updates!
