How legal betting business is organized in Ukraine.

Today, there are three bookmakers in Ukraine with the necessary license. Despite the fact that the activities of BC were recognized as legal as early as 2020, not all platforms strive to work honestly, so the national regulator has to respond promptly to the appearance of suspicious sites. A comprehensive list of legal bookmakers can be obtained in the rating Bookmakers Ukraine on the Meta website or from the official document available on the website of the authorized body - the Commission for the regulation of gambling and lotteries. Legislation imposes a number of requirements on the organizers of such entertainment: the availability of start-up capital, compliance with anti-corruption rules and the presence of reliable encryption to protect the personal data of players.

In fact, queries are much more, as well as innovations in the regulation of BC operations, actively attracting the attention of the audience.

Criteria for obtaining a license

Despite recent innovations in the regulation of the gambling sphere, the main requirements for organizers have not changed. Thus, for licensing bookmakers, it is necessary:

• Use only certified software;
• Timely pay taxes in the required amount (including withholding a certain percentage from user winnings);
• Have a bank guarantee (more than 40 million hryvnias) and an initial capital of 30 million;
• Operate only in hryvnias;
• Annually pay a license fee.

Monitoring the work of BC is a laborious and lengthy process: specialists study all the documentation provided by operators, and in case of sending an incomplete set of papers or identifying any violations of the law, licensing may be refused.

Restrictions and rules

Until legislative innovations aimed at combating gambling addiction and improving the regulation of the organization and conduct of gambling activities are adopted, temporary restrictions have been imposed by the Cabinet of Ministers, according to which terrestrial advertising and radio and TV announcements are subject to prohibition. Also, bookmakers are not allowed to use images of volunteers, athletes, medical personnel, and military personnel in advertising. This has become a subject of discussion among Ukrainians, as many of them believed that similar changes in legislation should have been introduced much earlier.

In addition, to protect players from negative influence, BC, like all other organizers of gambling entertainment, must introduce a mandatory limit on the funds that the user plans to spend on bets within a month, as well as check the fact that he has only one financial account on their platform. Special attention should be paid to the register of persons with limited access to gambling - upon completion of the mandatory verification, the player's account may be blocked if he or his relatives previously applied to be included in this list. In addition, bookmakers can only accept bets from citizens over 21 years old. Amendments to the existing regulation procedure were made in early 2024 and in the future it is planned to make changes and clarifications to them after the completion of the consideration by the parliament of legislative initiatives pending before it for consideration.

It can be concluded that there are quite a few modern solutions for regulating the betting market - all of them are aimed at the safety of players and the emergence of the gambling business from the shadows.