Kazakhstan blocked more than 9,000 gambling sites and identified 36 drop networks handling $236.6 million in H1 2026

Kazakhstan’s financial authorities say they blocked more than 9,000 gambling websites and identified 36 drop networks in H1 2026. For PSPs and acquirers, the number that matters is the money flow: $236.6 million passed through those accounts.

1. More than 9,000 gambling sites were blocked in Kazakhstan during H1 2026. For operators and payment teams, that signals a live enforcement environment rather than a paper ban.
2. Authorities also identified 36 drop networks. In payments terms, that means account chains used to move funds on behalf of third parties, which is the sort of structure that tends to attract scrutiny from banks and compliance teams.
3. The accounts linked to those networks processed $236.6 million in total during the period. That is the useful figure for risk assessment: it points to the scale of payment throughput moving through the local ecosystem.