CIS 2020 in review: Kazakhstan
4H Agency partners Ilya Machavariani and Ivan Kurochkin look back at regulatory developments in Kazakhstan over the last 12 months and assess the coming year for the central Asian hotspot
In 2020 CIS countries proved to the world that the regulation of gambling in its respective countries is changing in line with the worldwide trends. Kazakhstan being one of the CIS countries has refused to stand in the corner and silently watch the developments of the regulations in the neighbouring countries, playing its part in this trend.
The idea behind this document is to outline the main points of
- what has been changed in the Kazakhstan gambling regulation in 2020;
- what to expect in 2021?
- our assessment of the anticipated changes.
Changes that were enacted in 2020
Speaking more precisely, the changes that took place in 2020 were the following:
- due to the increase in the number of illegal offshore gambling operators in Kazakhstan, a new infrastructure for website blocking of the illegal offshore gambling operators was introduced into the regulations;
- government authorities limited the types of events where betting operators can accept bets only to the sports events (until July 2020 it was allowed to accept bets on various types of events (i.e., elections);
- provisions outlining certain aspects of responsible gambling, which had been introduced to the gambling law earlier, were expanded.
Unfortunately, such developments are cold comfort for Kazakhstan’s locally licensed gambling operators and are mainly focused on strengthening the paternalistic approach of the government to the gambling regulations.
What to expect in 2021?
It should be noted that some of the changes that were introduced in July 2020 will enter into effect on 4 January 2021.
These changes are as follows:
- betting and totalisator operators will now only be allowed to locate gambling premises only in the specifically designated gambling zones (as of now it’s not mandatory to locate such gambling premises in the gambling zones). To add to that, such gambling zones initially were created to host land-based casinos and slot machine halls.
- in order to ensure new mechanisms of control over the online betting and tote operators, a new “centre for bets accounting” would be created. It is stated that such centre would encompass all information in respect to all of the bets made in the jurisdiction.
As of December 2020, there are no other changes that have yet to be introduced but there is a lot of work to be done in order to launch the mechanisms that have been implemented into the gambling regulations.
Assessment of the anticipated changes
As can be seen from the tone of the changes they are mainly aimed at making the gambling regulations stricter with the growth of state control over the activity of the gambling operators. That being said, it would be interesting to look at how some of the changes are implemented in reality. That has always been the key aspect when it comes to any changes in the regulations in some of the CIS countries (including Kazakhstan).
It’s important to point out that the gambling community in Kazakhstan (e.g., non-profit organisations, media and social groups devoted to the development of the gambling industry) are also extremely concerned with the proposed changes as they give way to more questions in respect of the infrastructure which is yet to be set up and in respect of the whole path of the amendments that might be introduced later.
Ilya Machavariani is a gambling and gaming lawyer for Europe, Russia and the CIS and the senior partner at 4H Agency. He has extensive experience advising on gambling issues and advises clients on operating in the Russian Federation and the CIS, on the full range of regulations relating to the activities of gambling operators, as well as drafting the necessary contracts and internal documents. He also handles licensing processes for gambling operators that are entering new markets throughout the world.
Ivan Kurochkin, a partner at 4H Agency, has broad experience on gambling issues, especially in regulatory matters. His work involves advising clients doing business in the Russian Federation on various activities of gambling operators (including bookmakers), focusing on issues related to compliance with gaming licence requirements, applicable AML requirements and issues relating to advertising of gambling operators.
Picture credit: iStock/omersukrugoksu