Ukraine is a large, eastern European country. It borders Russia to the east, the Black Sea to the south, Moldova to the south-west, Romania to the south-west, Hungary to the west, Slovakia to the west, Poland to the west and Belarus to the north.
Just a few years ago, the gaming community could not even imagine that Ukraine would be able to open its doors to the legal casino. The prosperous bookmakers had to turn down their clients who wanted a wider range of services, or to look for other jurisdictions to realize themselves not only as the bookmaker, but also as the Casino provider.
Current online gaming laws in Ukraine are bad for operators, but they have little effect on players. Like many countries, Ukraine has a prohibition on the operation of any gambling site. Individual players aren’t targeted and have access to a wide range of foreign betting sites.
On 30 December 2020, the Ukrainian government published new licensing conditions covering the main types of gambling activities including land-based gaming (i.e., casinos), online gaming, betting, gaming (slot) machines, and online poker. These Licensing Conditions took effect immediately upon their publication on 30 December 2020.
The first thing to look for when checking Ukraine casino online platforms is the jurisdiction where they have obtained their license. Most of the top rated online casinos Ukraine punters can play at are licensed in Alderney, Isle of Man or the United Kingdom. It is quite difficult to obtain licenses from these jurisdictions since local authorities carefully check whether all the requirements are observed.
It was where the gambling market in Ukraine set off. The law does not set any specific requirements for the operator’s premises or its actual presence in the territory of Ukraine. The one limitation is that only a Ukrainian company may be its operator. All online casinos must have a .ua domain name and a registered website through which they operate.
