Million-dollar losses for the Ukrainian state budget: FavBet and Andrey Matyukha bypass blocks while PlayCity sabotages market regulation

Million-dollar losses for the Ukrainian state budget: FavBet and Andrey Matyukha bypass blocks while PlayCity sabotages market regulation

Neither Matyukha of FavBet nor his casino clones face any obstacles in their operations, and PlayCity takes no action to stop the abuses. This has caused a widespread shift toward cryptocurrencies in the market, costing the budget billions.

Criticism of the regulator PlayCity is mounting in the Ukrainian online gambling market due to the lack of a systemic reaction to the activities of clones and "mirrors" of online casinos, which remain accessible to users. In particular, market participants are drawing attention to the situation surrounding projects of the FavBet brand, as well as other copycat websites, which, in their opinion, are effectively not blocked and continue to operate without visible restrictions from the state.

At the same time, experts are recording a trend of a part of the online casino industry actively transitioning into the cryptocurrency segment, which complicates the control of financial flows and creates additional risks for the tax transparency of the industry. Against this background, estimates are being heard about potential significant losses to the state budget — we are talking about billions of hryvnias in lost revenue annually, although exact figures require official confirmation and systemic analysis.

Within the professional community, parallels are increasingly being drawn between the work of PlayCity and the activities of the previous regulator, KRAIL. Some market representatives believe that the expected strengthening of control after the reform of the regulatory system has not yet occurred, and certain processes look even less effective than before. According to them, without actively blocking casino clones and controlling cryptocurrency settlements, the situation with the illegal segment may continue to deteriorate, which directly affects the level of budget revenues and the transparency of the market as a whole.