Ukraine approves Strategy for Countering Gambling Addiction to 2035

Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has approved a nine-year strategy that combines awareness campaigns, treatment, rehabilitation, enforcement and anti-illegal-gambling measures. For high-risk operators and their payment partners, the important part is that the plan ties together regulators, law enforcement, schools, health services and payment-related enforcement in one state policy.

1. The Ministry of Digital Transformation said the strategy sets state policy through 2035 on preventing gambling addiction, supporting people with addiction and combating illegal gambling. The document is meant to align the work of multiple agencies rather than leave each one to improvise in its own lane.
2. Ukraine plans nationwide awareness campaigns on gambling risks, including school classes on the dangers of gambling addiction. The strategy also calls for work on detecting early warning signs and on factors that can contribute to the development of addiction.
3. The government will expand access to treatment, psychological support and rehabilitation. Separate support programmes will be developed for military personnel and veterans, and the ministry recently announced a tender for a system to prevent military personnel from gambling in Ukraine.
4. Another focus is blocking illegal gambling websites and unlawful advertising, while law enforcement agencies are expected to step up efforts against gambling-related crime. For PSPs and acquirers, that usually means more pressure around merchant monitoring, traffic sources and the appearance of clearly prohibited activity in the payment flow.
5. Close to 40 government agencies will be involved, including the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Social Policy, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Veterans Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine, Bureau of Economic Security, National Police and the national gambling regulator PlayCity.

The scale is not small: Ukrainians spent nearly UAH 400m (€7.7m) a day on online casinos in 2023, and monthly spending exceeded UAH 12bn (€231.4m). That is the sort of number that gets a policy strategy, a regulator and law enforcement to sit in the same room.