Kyrgyzstan’s financial regulator says it still cannot fully control the market as residents keep using foreign online casinos

The head of Kyrgyzstan’s financial market regulator told a parliamentary finance committee that residents are still accessing offshore online casinos through VPNs, foreign accounts and virtual wallets. For PSPs and acquirers, the practical point is simple: payment identification remains messy, and the regulator says it does not yet have enough staff to monitor the online side properly.

1. According to the regulator, Kyrgyz citizens continue to use foreign online casinos via VPNs, foreign bank accounts and virtual wallets. The same official said identifying payments connected to gambling remains a separate problem, which is the bit compliance teams usually end up dealing with after the fact.
2. The country currently has 7 land-based casinos operating, while the iGaming sector has issued 24 licenses in total: 13 for administering gambling resources and 11 for operators. Companies receiving a license must post deposits of 10 million soms ($114 thousand) and 20 million soms ($228 thousand).
3. Over the past year, the financial regulator sent 29 materials to law enforcement over illegal lottery activity. That is the kind of pipeline that matters if you are trying to judge how aggressively a jurisdiction is documenting and escalating market abuse.
4. The regulator also said it lacks enough staff positions to properly monitor illegal online casinos, binary options and other internet resources. In practice, that means enforcement capacity is part of the licensing story, not just the written rules.