The State Agency for Control over Gambling and Lotteries of Ukraine (PlayCity) has decided to fine FC Dynamo (Kyiv) for violating the requirements of the legislation on advertising in the field of organization and conduct of gambling for the amount of UAH 5.2m. According to the regulator’s document dated January 26, the violation was recorded on January 16.
At the same time, the soccer club has the right to appeal the decision in court within three months, the document says.
In December, it was reported that PlayCity has decided to block more than 2,500 illegal online casino sites in the six months since the start of operations, and the amount of fines imposed on bloggers and media for illegal promotion of gambling exceeded UAH 52 million.
In addition, more than 280 pages in social networks were deleted for posting illegal gambling advertisements.
In late December, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, PlayCity head Gennadiy Novikov noted that in the future it is planned to differentiate fines for violations in the field of gambling advertising by the degree of public risk, in particular, the fine for advertising illegal business will be higher.
The state agency fined 4.8 million UAH for illegal gambling advertising by the Telegram channel Truha Ukraine, Ukrainian sports media Tribuna.com (registered as Sport Segodnya LLC) and online media dev.ua (Dev Ukraine LLC). The media, in their turn, announced their intention to appeal this decision. There are no court rulings on these cases yet.
Since February 2025, the state policy in the field of gambling is formed and coordinated by the Ministry of Finance. On March 21, 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to create a new central executive body – PlayCity agency (PlayCity), which is officially subordinate to the Mincifra and replaced the previous regulator – the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (CRAIL) from April 1.
