Over 45 billion hryvnia earned in less than a year: what is happening in the gambling market in Ukraine

Ukrainian online casinos earned over UAH 45 billion in the first 9 months of 2025, surpassing last year’s results. At the same time, authorities strengthened regulations this year. Licenses are revoked, illegal operators blocked, and oversight and sanctions have become stricter even at the cost of losing some revenue.

This is according to YouControl analytics. For the first nine months of 2025, total revenue of legal online casinos exceeded UAH 45.5 billion, 8% higher than the same period last year.

For comparison, from January to September 2024, revenue was around UAH 42 billion. As of December 2025, 30 online casinos were registered in the official license registry. Meanwhile, the state actively "cleans" the market:

• licenses revoked for 8 operators;
• licenses suspended for 2 operators.

Being listed in the registry does not guarantee stable operation – oversight has become much stricter, and transparency requirements increased. Financial performance remains impressive. In 2024, total revenue of online casinos that published financial statements reached UAH 57 billion.

In the first nine months of 2025, 16 companies declared UAH 45.5 billion in revenue, nearly matching the previous year’s annual figure. However, market performance is uneven, as some operators show multi-billion turnovers while others have symbolic income or are just starting.

Analytics notes that Ukrainian online gambling is no longer purely a domestic business. Licensed operators include individuals and entities from 11 countries, including EU states, the USA, and offshore jurisdictions.

Geographically, registration in Ukraine is compact, as most online casinos are officially registered in Kyiv, with only a few in other cities. Over the past three years, authorities have applied restrictions to operators with questionable capital origins or potential ties to the aggressor country.

In total, five online casinos came under sanctions, some of which previously had significant financial performance. Implementing sanctions effectively pushes such operators out of the market, even at the expense of potential tax revenue. The state prioritizes reputation and market safety over volume.

After the old regulator was dissolved in 2025, market oversight transferred to a new state agency introducing digital monitoring tools. In six months, it has:

• blocked over 2,500 illegal online casinos;
• achieved the removal of more than 280 social media pages for illegal gambling advertising;
• imposed tens of millions of hryvnias in fines for advertising law violations.

The legal online gambling segment gradually becomes an important source of budget revenue. According to experts, in the first three quarters of 2025 alone, the market paid nearly UAH 14 billion in taxes. Additionally, authorities actively collect fines for illegal advertising and license violations.