Ukraine Grants PlayCity New Powers Over Gambling Oversight

The Ukrainian government has approved a formal statute for PlayCity, the newly created state agency tasked with regulating gambling and lotteries. The new rules grant the body authority to maintain key industry registries, enforce player protection measures, and initiate website blocking against unlicensed operators.

New Mandate for Ukraine’s Gambling Regulator

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has signed off on a formal statute outlining the authority of PlayCity, the recently established state agency for gambling policy. Created earlier this year to replace the now-defunct Gambling and Lottery Commission, PlayCity is now empowered to act as the primary regulator for the sector.

Among its core responsibilities will be maintaining a national registry of individuals with gambling addiction. It will also oversee the register of official state lotteries and manage licensing competitions for operators entering the market.

Crackdown on Illegal Operators

One of the more significant powers granted to PlayCity is the ability to request the blocking of websites and mobile applications that offer gambling services without a license. This represents a sharp escalation in enforcement efforts aimed at curbing Ukraine’s sizable unlicensed gambling market, which has been a persistent issue since the sector’s relegalization in 2020.

In addition to enforcement, PlayCity will issue annual reports on the state of the gambling market, providing transparency on industry trends, operator performance, and consumer behavior.

Player Protection Measures

The statute also enables PlayCity to issue formal guidelines to gambling operators, particularly in the area of player protection. These include:

Daily time limits for continuous online gambling sessions
Mandatory breaks between gaming sessions
Personal spending limits, which players can set for daily, weekly, or monthly gambling activity

Any changes to those limits will be restricted to no more than once every 30 days. The aim is to give players more control over their gambling behavior and to reduce the risk of excessive or impulsive spending.

PlayCity was established in March following the dissolution of the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries by the Ukrainian parliament in late 2023. The reorganization was framed as an effort to strengthen governance and improve oversight in a market that has rapidly evolved in the past few years.