Scandal in the lottery market: PlayCity issues a statement regarding the operator “Patriot”
27 March 08:24
The state agency PlayCity has revoked the license of the state lottery operator PJSC “Patriot,” which the company had received just one month ago. The decision was based on information from law enforcement authorities indicating that the ultimate beneficiary did not meet the requirements of Ukrainian law.
This information was published on the agency’s official website, reports "Komersant Ukrainian"
Why the license was revoked
As noted by PlayCity, the decision was based on information from the State Bureau of Investigations.
This concerns the possible non-compliance of the company’s ultimate beneficial owner with established requirements regarding the transparency of the ownership structure and other criteria for market admission.
The regulator has the right to revoke a license if circumstances are discovered that contradict the conditions of its issuance.
Patriot Position
Patriot JSC will appeal the regulator’s decision to revoke the license in accordance with the established procedure.
The company considers this “decision unlawful, and the allegations made unfounded.”
“They are based on unreliable information that has nothing to do with the actual circumstances.
Patriot JSC operates in accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine, works openly and transparently. The company’s ownership structure is public, and the ultimate beneficial owner is a citizen of Ukraine,” the operator said in a release.
What is known about the company “Patriot”
Patriot PJSC has been operating in the Ukrainian lottery market since 1997 and is one of three state lottery operators in Ukraine.
The company is owned by the British company Andalidi Invest Ltd., and businessman Andriy Matyukha is listed as the ultimate beneficiary.
At the same time, there have been public statements regarding Matyukha’s possible Russian citizenship. In particular, Danylo Getmantsev, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada’s Tax Committee, claimed that Matyukha holds such a passport, but the businessman himself denies these allegations.
Has the company faced problems in the past?
Between 2015 and 2018, Patriot was subject to sanctions imposed by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
After that, the company continued its operations in the market.
What will happen to the lottery tickets
Following the revocation of the license, unsold lottery tickets must be destroyed in accordance with the law.
At the same time, the company has the right to:
- appeal the decision to the Expert and Appeals Council on Licensing;
- appeal to the administrative court;
- submit additional documents to confirm compliance with the requirements.
How the company obtained the license
As a reminder, in January 2026, Patriot, along with the operators of the MSL and the Ukrainian National Lottery, won the competition to obtain licenses under the new rules.
In early March, these companies each paid 24.2 million UAH to the budget for the licenses.
What is known about the regulator PlayCity
PlayCity is a state agency responsible for regulating the gambling and lottery market in Ukraine.
The agency’s main functions include:
- issuing licenses;
- monitoring operators;
- verifying beneficiaries;
- combating the black market.
Licenses for UNL, Patriot, and MSL
In early March, Ukraine’s state agency PlayCity announced that three leading lottery market operators—MSL, Patriot, and the Ukrainian National Lottery—had officially received licenses.
At the same time, Danylo Getmantsev criticized PlayCity for issuing a license to UNL, stating that the operator“has outlets in Mariupol and Melitopol.”
“UNL received the license. However, the regulator PlayCity was not deterred by the fact that, according to the documents submitted for the competition, UNL did not have, contrary to the requirements, lottery outlets in at least the city of Kalynivka and the town of Pishchanka in Vinnytsia Oblast. And since these settlements are home to more than 5,000 residents, lottery outlets there are mandatory as a condition for admission to the competition.
Moreover, PlayCity issued a license to a company that, according to the published documents, operates its own terminal in Nova Kakhovka and has lottery outlets in the cities of Mariupol, Melitopol, and Nova Kakhovka, which are currently occupied,” the deputy stated.
Additionally, in February, Getmantsev appealed to the Prosecutor General demanding an end to the “organized scheme for distributing licenses.”
Gambling and PlayCity
In January of this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law providing for the dissolution of the CRAIL and the strengthening of state oversight of the gambling market. The document, in particular, imposed stricter restrictions on gambling advertising and prohibits its sponsorship, as well as introduces additional mechanisms to restrict access to gambling establishments and participation in gambling for socially vulnerable groups during martial law.
In general, gambling was legalized in Ukraine back in 2020, but the online monitoring system never actually became operational. It is supposed to track all the money players pay, which would allow for an accurate calculation of casino revenues and, consequently, the collection of actual taxes. According to various estimates, the absence of this system costs the budget tens of billions of hryvnias in lost tax revenue annually.
Recently,the state agency PlayCity (established to replace KRAIL) has been handling this issue in Ukraine. Its activities are coordinated through Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov.
The Agency is currently headed by Gennadiy Novikov. Previously, he worked at the Ministry of Digital Transformation under the leadership of Mykhailo Fedorov, where he served as the chief specialist of the IT Industry Division within the Department of Digital Development and as the head of the expert group on e-commerce and business development within the Directorate of the Digital Economy. Novikov later moved to the CRAIL. There, he was responsible for developing an online monitoring system for the gambling market in Ukraine, which has not yet been created.
According to results from January through October 2025, budget revenues from gambling license fees exceeded 1.3 billion UAH, already surpassing the annual target set in government plans. Additionally, the state received another 8.6 billion UAH in tax revenues from the gambling industry.
