Ukraine is preparing an automated system designed to prevent military personnel from accessing legal gambling platforms, with gambling regulator PlayCity launching a tender for the technology needed to connect key state databases.
The project will create an electronic link between Ukraine’s register of people restricted from gambling and the State Register of Military Personnel being developed by the Ministry of Defence. The two databases will exchange information through Trembita, Ukraine’s government data-sharing system.
Under the planned system, licensed gambling operators will carry out a check whenever a player registers or logs into an account. The initial query will be made against the national register of people barred from gambling. If no restriction is found there, the system will automatically check the military register.
When a restriction applies, the operator will only receive confirmation that the person cannot gamble. It will not be told whether the restriction comes from the gambling exclusion register or the person’s military status, protecting sensitive information about members of Ukraine’s armed forces.
PlayCity said the technical module is being developed under Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 804, adopted on 17 June 2026. The measure gives authorities six months from its publication on 24 June to establish and test the connection between the two registers.
That means PlayCity and the Ministry of Defence are expected to complete testing by 24 December 2026. Once both authorities confirm that the system works correctly and PlayCity publishes the relevant implementation act, the automatic restriction mechanism will become operational.
The initiative builds on restrictions introduced in 2024, when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered Ukraine’s military leadership to prohibit servicemen from visiting gambling venues or participating in online gambling for the duration of martial law.
Ukraine has since expanded its wider responsible-gambling framework. PlayCity said more than 16,000 people were listed in the country’s gambling restriction register by April 2026, including more than 3,000 new self-exclusion applications submitted during the first four months of the year.
Players can currently request voluntary exclusion for periods ranging from six months to three years. In certain circumstances, close relatives or legal representatives can also seek a restriction where gambling has caused serious financial difficulties or other specified problems.
PlayCity began operating in 2025 as the replacement for the former Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries, commonly known as KRAIL. The regulator was created as part of a government overhaul intended to digitalise licensing, strengthen supervision and reduce illegal gambling activity.
During its first year, PlayCity said it blocked more than 4,100 illegal gambling websites, imposed more than UAH 988 million in penalties on licensed operators and began test operations of Ukraine’s State Online Monitoring System. The agency has also introduced new responsible-gambling measures and worked with the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Ministry of Defence on the military gambling restriction mechanism.