PlayCity, Ukraine’s gambling regulator, has fined influencer Aliona Omovych UAH 5.18m ($118,000) for promoting unlicensed casinos on her social media pages.
The agency identified posts advertising gambling on Omovych’s Instagram account, which reaches millions of followers.
PlayCity emphasised that bloggers are prohibited from advertising gambling, and that promoting illegal casinos has an even greater negative impact on their audience.
The regulator noted that such activity exposes followers to significant risks in an unregulated market, where player protections and payout guarantees do not apply.
Under the decision, Omovych must pay the fine within three months and inform PlayCity of her voluntary compliance.
This follows a previous enforcement action in which the regulator fined Kyiv’s Dynamo football club over UAH 5m for violating gambling advertising rules at its stadium.
In October last year, Ukrainian authorities blocked 33 TikTok accounts accused of promoting illegal gambling activity. The disabled pages had a combined audience of roughly 365,000 users.
Recent regulatory activity in Ukraine has been extensive. The Ministry of Digital Transformation has opened a public consultation on proposed amendments to the country’s gambling legislation and tax framework, aiming to modernise regulation.
Proposed reforms include stronger player protection measures and digital monitoring of operators.
Ukraine has also issued its first lottery licences in more than 12 years, generating over UAH 72m (€1.7m) in revenue for the state budget as authorities moved to formalise the sector.
Meanwhile, PlayCity has launched a responsible gambling section on its website, offering educational resources, an interactive quiz and a self-exclusion form.
Ukraine legalised gambling in 2020, bringing previously unregulated betting and casino activities under a national licensing and taxation framework
