A criminal investigation has been launched into PlayCity’s issuance of licenses to monopoly lottery operators, says a member of parliament
25 March 12:02
Danylo Getmantsev , a member of parliament and chairman of the Tax Committee, announced that the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine has opened a criminal case regarding the issuance of licenses by the PlayCity agency to lottery operators, which, according to the politician, took place on the basis of a sham tender. Danylo Getmantsev reported this on Facebook, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
Getmantsev’s “attack” on UNL, MSL, PlayCity, and the “players” Bornyakov and Novikov from Fedorov’s “star” team is linked to the fact that these scoundrels conducted a sham competition, handing out lottery licenses to monopoly lottery operators in direct violation of the law. All of this is to the detriment of the state during wartime.
A criminal case has already been opened by the OGPU, and I am monitoring the legality of the investigation.
As for Misha Fedorov, I would like to advise him, instead of running around paid media outlets and Telegram channels asking them to post this ridiculous smear campaign against Getmantsev for money, finally tackle, at the President’s behest, the problem of “Bussification” and VIP evaders—regarding the resolution of which we have not yet seen a single compelling presentation despite the worsening situation since you took it on,” he wrote.
Licenses for UNL, “Patriot,” and MSL
In early March, Ukraine’s state agency PlayCity announced that three leading operators in the lottery market—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 banned its sponsorship, as well as introduced 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.
