Gambling Regulation: Which Operators Have Disclosed Data to the Government
23 April 19:21
The PlayCity State Agency is testing an online transaction monitoring system, which the first five companies have already joined. This is the first phase of the system, which already allows the government to track key financial flows within the gambling industry.
This was announced by the agency’s head, Gennady Novikov, during a presentation of the system’s functionality at the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Digital Transformation, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
According to the agency’s head, Gennady Novikov, the system is operating in test mode, and although technical glitches remain, they are being gradually resolved. At the same time, the market is reacting cautiously positively. For operators, integration has not been difficult, as they already collect most of the data in their own systems. In fact, this is not about new requirements, but about standardizing and transmitting this information to the state.
At this stage, the regulator already has access to basic data. The system records bets, winnings, refunds, account deposits, and unique player identifiers. Dedicated portals are also operational for the regulator itself and the State Tax Service of Ukraine, opening the door for further integration with tax oversight.
What is the key idea?
The key idea is full transparency of transactions. The system is capable of processing tens of thousands of transactions per second and is intended to serve as the basis for automatic tax calculation. The full launch of this feature is expected in the next phase of the platform’s development.
The new tool is aimed at combating shadow schemes. The regulator plans to use so-called test purchases to verify that all transactions are recorded in the system.
“To put it simply, we will be able to see everything that happens after a player tops up their account during a game and until the moment they decide to withdraw funds from the account. Regarding tax evasion, we will monitor this using the test purchase method. For example, if an operator connects to the DSOM, we make a test purchase and don’t see the corresponding entry in the system, that means there’s a parallel cash register. And then we’ll respond harshly, specifically by revoking licenses,” Novikov added.
As a reminder, the state agency “PlayCity” previously revoked the license of Spacix LLC, which operates under the Cosmolot brand, due to the use of P2P payments.
