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The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has implemented a ban to prevent gamblers from using loaned funds to gamble online.
The country’s central bank has imposed “a ban on customer payments to accounts of gambling operators for participation in gambling using loan funds”, according to a statement.
“The measure will minimise risks to the security and stability of the financial system, reduce the negative effects of online gambling, and help to protect consumer rights and develop responsible consumer lending.”
The bank introduced the measure, effective from June 22, through the NBU Board Resolution No. 72, the statement said.
The latest decision joins several measures undertaken in the past months by the country’s authorities that target gambling.
In April 2024, a trade group accused Ukrainian authorities of exerting political pressure to block bank accounts belonging to licensed online gambling operators after the Cabinet moved to impose new gambling restrictions, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Decree 234/2024, which bans members of the Ukrainian military from using the services of online and brick-and-mortar gambling outlets as long as the country remains under martial law.
Separately, Ukraine’s gambling regulator (KRAIL) announced on Monday (June 24) that it had issued two fines for breaching advertising rules.
The authority said it had handed out two fines of UAH2.4m (€55,110) to two unnamed companies for breaching Ukraine’s advertising law.
The violations related to outdoor advertising “which includes an image of an object of intellectual property rights”, KRAIL said in a bulletin on its website.
The fines can be appealed, the regulator said.
Ukraine’s government effectively banned gambling advertising on May 21 and the regulator began handing out fines for violations earlier this month.
KRAIL itself faces an uncertain future, however, as it stares down the barrel of a concerted political effort to close down the regulator and move oversight of the Ukrainian gambling industry to within the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
