Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine #855-r of August 26, 2026

Who is affected: people with gambling addiction and members of their families; service members and war veterans as a separately identified risk group; young people, in particular those not in education or employment; players; licensed gambling operators; healthcare facilities, social service providers, youth centers, and sports schools; the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the PlayCity Agency, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine, and the National Police of Ukraine.

Summary:

  • approves the Strategy of national policy on minimizing the negative impact of gambling and combating gambling addiction until 2035, as well as the operational plan for its implementation for 2027–2029;
  • defines five strategic goals:
    • promoting a healthy lifestyle and reducing the negative impact of gambling on society;
    • fostering a culture of responsible gambling among players;
    • ensuring timely, accessible, and continuous assistance to people with gambling addiction and their families;
    • restricting the operation of the illegal gambling market;
    • creating a system for collecting and analyzing data on the population’s engagement in gambling, gambling behavior models, and the prevalence of gambling addiction — through annual national representative studies, epidemiological surveillance, and data from the National Online Monitoring System, with public annual reporting on the implementation of the Strategy;
  • proposes a reorientation of national policy from administrative and punitive approaches to social-preventive, medical, and psychosocial approaches;
  • in 2028, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Police, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, and the PlayCity Agency are to analyze the appropriateness of retaining administrative liability of players for participation in illegal gambling, and in 2029, on the basis of that analysis and if necessary, a draft law on abolishing such liability is to be prepared;
  • the player is recognized as an injured party in cases of illegal organization of gambling (currently no such mechanism exists in legislation);
  • the Ministry of Defense is to carry out the following measures: develop training programs, instructions for commanders, indicators (markers) for detecting recruitment attempts through gambling debts, integrate the topic of gambling addiction into training programs, and provide support after discharge from service;
  • sports sponsorship by gambling operators is regulated: restrictions on grassroots sports and a complete ban on sponsorship by unlicensed entities;
  • digital tools are being developed: AI-based algorithms for identifying risky gambling behavior through the National Online Monitoring System, tracking transactions in virtual assets, and detecting hidden marketing on streaming platforms;
  • the first national representative study of the population’s engagement in gambling, gambling behavior models, and the prevalence of gambling addiction is being introduced — annually, starting from 2027.

What is right:

  • For the first time, the Strategy forms a comprehensive national policy on gambling addiction, combining prevention, healthcare, social protection, regulation of the gambling market, work with service members and veterans, and countering the illegal gambling market.
  • The document acknowledges that in the six years since legalization, the state has built neither a detection system nor an assistance system, and half of the market remains in the shadows.
  • The proposal to change the approach to people involved in gambling — from an administrative-punitive model to a model of social and medical support — corresponds to modern approaches to addressing gambling addiction.
  • Special attention to service members and veterans is justified in wartime conditions: the Strategy treats gambling addiction not only as a health problem but also as a factor of financial and security vulnerability.

What is wrong:

The Strategy contains quantitative goals but does not define the cost of achieving them, the sources of funding, or the indicators by which its effectiveness will be assessed.

Alternative solution:

A fixed share of gambling operator license fees should be directed to the Strategy’s activities; this would make its funding predictable, independent of annual budget competition, and logically linked to the source of the problem. A model under which the industry finances the mitigation of its own negative consequences is applied in a number of European jurisdictions.