Ukraine study: 86% of online casino players prefer licensed sites

A new Ukrainian study of active online casino users says 86% prefer operators authorised in the country’s regulated market, while 78% said they do not intend to move to unlicensed gambling websites. For PSPs, acquiring teams, and banks serving high-risk merchants, that is the part worth noticing: in this sample, licence status is not a side issue.

1. The findings come from the second stage of a wider nationwide research project on gambling in Ukraine, initiated by Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation. The stated purpose is straightforward enough: give policymakers evidence on gambling participation, player behaviour, and the effectiveness of responsible gaming measures.
2. The survey was run by the SOCIOINFORM Sociological Center between May 19 and June 26, 2026, using online computer-assisted web interviewing. It covered 2,676 respondents and focused specifically on people who actively use online casino services, which makes the results more relevant than broad public-opinion polling when you are trying to understand actual player behaviour.
3. On the preference question, 86% said they choose operators authorised within Ukraine’s regulated market. On the migration question, 78% said they had no intention of moving to unlicensed gambling websites. In other words, the legal label is doing real work here, at least among the surveyed users.
4. The study also suggests a market made up partly of long-time gamblers rather than only recent entrants. Around 20% of male respondents and 5% of female respondents reported more than 10 years of gambling experience, including time before Ukraine introduced its modern regulatory framework.
5. Motivation-wise, the research does not present gambling as purely a money-seeking exercise. Approximately 40% said they began because they wanted to try it or were interested in it. Other reasons included a break from everyday routines, promotional offers, the possibility of winning money, and encouragement from friends.

The broader point for high-risk operators is that Ukraine’s regulated market appears to have a meaningful segment of players who care about authorisation status, not just bonuses or access. That matters when you are deciding where to deploy acquiring capacity, how to price risk, and how much value to assign to a licensed versus unlicensed flow.