Tashkent police shut down an illegal online casino disguised as an IT company

Police in Yashnabad district of Tashkent have shut down an illegal online casino that operated under the cover of an ordinary IT company. For high-risk payment teams, the useful detail is not the disguise itself but the operating model: encrypted communications, a layered staff structure, and cash plus banking and SIM-card infrastructure.

1. The cybercrime division of Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs says 16 people are involved in the case, and 11 of them have been taken into custody.
2. Over the last six months, the structure’s turnover reached about $4 million. Investigators say around 60,000 people were brought into gambling activity.
3. The player base included residents of Uzbekistan and several Middle Eastern countries: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait.
4. According to investigators, the operation was built like a large company, with managers and supervisors overseeing the business and cashiers, operators, analysts, and reporting specialists handling day-to-day tasks.
5. During searches, authorities seized server equipment, computers, laptops, phones, bank cards, SIM cards, and cash. A criminal case has been opened, and investigators are still identifying people who remotely provided services to the group.

For PSPs and acquirers, the pattern is familiar: gambling traffic routed through a “normal” IT front, supported by encrypted channels and common payment-related tools such as bank cards and SIM cards. That is exactly the sort of setup that can sit in onboarding files without looking like a casino until the volume, geography, and transaction behavior start to line up.