Best Online Casinos - Ukraine

In 2020, the latest Ukraine casino news had fans of gambling rejoicing — the government finally legalized the industry. Despite the fact that the lawmakers limited gambling only to casinos in authorized hotels, it was still better than what the country dealt with in the years prior. Banned before 2020, gambling still existed in illegal casinos masked as kiosks. 

The Gambling Act was signed into law on August 11th, 2020, and the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries became the legal body to moderate the industry. The law clearly defined basic regulations, as well as license fees and taxes. Immediately after the act was signed, several international gambling brands announced their intentions to pursue online gambling licenses for Ukraine. One of such online operators was Parimatch — a popular gambling brand among Ukrainians.

According to the new local regulations, casinos are limited to functioning only within hotels. An operator must have a Ukrainian license, which is quite costly. For online gaming lobbies, the license costs 1 million Euros and must be renewed every five years. Advertising casino services is allowed, and the legal age to access casino content is set to 21 years.

Games of chance were popular in Ukraine since the 1900s. Back then, the country’s lands were part of the Russian Empire. By the 1930s, with the rise of the Communist Party, all betting houses were closed to “keep the workers focused on their jobs and duties”. Racetracks remained the only legal place to wager cash on bets. Other than that, Ukrainians resorted to playing card games at home, in small circles of friends.

The first legal casino opened in Ukraine in the 1990s, briefly after the country got its independence. Since then, small, and big casinos have started popping around the country, predominantly in big cities. The industry was booming until 2009 when the government issued a ban on all forms of gambling. This led to the criminalization of the gambling sector and to casinos turning into secret spots where it was risky to gamble.

Immediately after gambling, including online casinos, was legalized in the year 2020, four companies applied and became the first to receive the licenses. These are Spacex LLC and its “Kosmolot” chain of casinos, as well as PariMatch, GameDev, and First Element companies.

By the time we were putting this publication together, the legalized gambling sector in Ukraine was still very new and flexible, with little to no locally licensed online gaming lobbies. So, we looked at 400+ international websites ready to welcome Ukrainians instead.

The local currency — Ukrainian hryvnia — is supported by less than 2% of online operators in our database. Instead, we recommend using USD or EUR — two of the most popular currencies available in more than 90% of websites on our portal.

As far as the payment methods go, Ukrainians know that popular e-wallets Neteller, Skrill, ecoPayz, and MuchBetter, as well as payment solutions like PayPal are not an option in their countries. So, they use Visa and MasterCard to manage deposits and withdrawals. Luckily, both cards do not have any bans from banks when it comes to gambling-related transactions.

If we are talking about Visa, there are 440+ online operators accepting it as well as ready to welcome Ukrainian traffic. The list includes, among others, FavBet and 1xBet. As for MasterCard, our database indicates its presence at 420+ places to bet and win, including Betway and Casoo.

Policy for taxing players and operators is still in the early stages of development. By the time we were ready to publish this article, local players in Ukraine did not have to pay taxes on wins.

Because Ukrainians are welcome at international lobbies, they are able to place bets on slots and table games from all the popular content creators. Top-3 for players from this country are studios like Net Entertainment, Microgaming, and Playtech.

What is more, the country is home to several successful slot developers, and they even managed to make their way to international lobbies and to gain authority among players from other European countries. These studios are Evoplay Entertainment, Ruby Play, NetGame, Gamzix, and ThunderSpin.

Game-wise, Ukrainians prefer slot machines to table games. There are even quite a few successful Ukraine-themed slots that players from the country thoroughly enjoy.