Speaking to local media, the Head of PlayCity, Gennady Novikov, warned that half of Ukraine’s gambling market remains illegal.
He said that legal gambling businesses paid UAH 19bn ($437m) to the state in 2025. Novikov explained that of this total, UAH 17bn came from taxes and UAH 2bn from licence fees.
Novikov stated: “The estimate— the only one available today— is that 50% of the online casino market is illegal.”
He added that the state will be able to see the full picture of the State Monitoring Online System (SOMS) implementation by the end of 2026. He said the DSOM is a “fairly complex IT product” because the market processes millions of transactions per second.
Illegal gambling is not the only concern, with some officials also warning about other problematic practices in the Ukrainian market and calling for faster implementation of the SOMS.
Danylo Hetmantsev, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, previously warned about potential tax evasion by operators.
Meanwhile, Member of Parliament Nina Yuzhanina said National Bank of Ukraine data on the gambling industry shows numerous cases where gambling payouts were sent to bank cards different from those used for deposits. She also noted that some of these transfers involved unusually large sums of money.
Yuzhanina warned about the widespread use of fake accounts known as “drops.” These are bank accounts of unrelated individuals used by third parties to withdraw large sums of money. According to her statement, these factors create significant risks of money laundering.
In the initial phase, SOMS will track key player transactions including bets, payouts, refunds and balance replenishments. This will allow the state to monitor the activities of licensed operators in real-time and more accurately assess the taxes these companies are required to pay.
The acting Minister of Digital Transformation, Oleksandr Bornyakov, has announced that the state will fund the implementation of the second phase of the SOMS
