Danylo Getmantsev, Head of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, has initiated a meeting of the Temporary Investigative Commission (TIC) to strengthen oversight of the gambling market.
He has repeatedly warned of potential tax evasion by gambling operators.
Getmantsev wants the State Online Gambling Monitoring System (SOGM) to provide comprehensive monitoring by recording individual players, all bets, winnings, and gambling activity, while granting tax authorities full access to this information to improve tax compliance and identify undeclared gambling revenue.
The system's full implementation is under way, and most gambling operators have been connected to it. Getmantsev argues that launching the system without these essential monitoring and data-access capabilities would render it ineffective.
Indeed, Ukraine’s gambling sector faces growing concerns about transparency.
In May, allegations emerged that state-owned Sense Bank may have facilitated illegal gambling transactions.
Separately, Member of Parliament Nina Yuzhanina previously raised concerns over possible money laundering after citing National Bank of Ukraine data showing gambling payouts being transferred to bank cards different from those originally used for deposits. Some of the transactions also involved unusually large sums.
Against this backdrop, in September, Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation announced a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s gambling regulatory framework. The proposed changes will cover gambling legislation, taxation and the state lottery system.
Ukrainian lawmakers have repeatedly proposed numerous measures to improve transparency. While these proposals are well-intentioned, lawmakers have spent several years trying to establish a proper framework for the sector but have, so far, almost always fallen short.
A study by Kantar Ukraine, commissioned by the Association of Gambling Business Operators, estimates that 55.4% of gambling spending in Ukraine goes to illegal operators
