Central Asia’s iGaming Split: Uzbekistan Issues Its First Licenses as Kazakhstan Tightens Control

Uzbekistan legalized online betting back in January 2025, but did not issue the first licenses until late July 2026, and so far only two companies have received them. During the same period, Kazakhstan raised the minimum age for players to 21, almost completely banned bookmaker advertising, and required every bet and every payment to go through a state-run accounting system. We’ll break down both regulatory frameworks and explain what they mean for operators, affiliates, providers, and payment companies.

Key Takeaways

• Uzbekistan. Decree UP-68 authorized online gaming and sports betting effective January 1, 2025, but the National Agency for Prospective Projects (NAPP) did not issue the first licenses until July 31, 2026 – they were granted to Olimpbet and Aurum Vale (the Oltinbet brand). As of October 22, there are still four licenses on record. A 4% tax on revenue, net of winnings, has been in effect since July 1, 2026, as a three-year experiment;
• Kazakhstan. A bookmaker is not permitted to accept a bet without recording it in the Unified Accounting System (UAS), and online payments are processed exclusively using electronic money within this system. Since March 27, 2026, 3.3% is withheld from each bet. Gambling is permitted for those aged 21 and older, and bookmaker advertising is allowed only on a limited number of channels. According to Blask, the index of legal brands fell by nearly 70% between January and June 2026;
• A common denominator. Both markets are closed to offshore traffic and to the traditional affiliate model. In Uzbekistan, gambling advertising is prohibited by law; in Kazakhstan, it is limited to the operator’s website, sports media, and broadcasts. In both countries, the government is establishing a registry through which it can track every player and every bet.

Uzbekistan: Legalization Since 2025; Licenses Since July 2026

The legal basis is Presidential Decree UP-68 of April 19, 2024, on measures to improve the regulation of the organization and conduct of lotteries and risk-based games. Effective January 1, 2025, it authorized the organization of online games and bookmaking activities under license. The regulator and licensing authority is the NAPP, the same agency that oversees cryptoassets and the capital market. Residents and non-residents aged 18 and above may participate, and winnings from licensed operators are exempt from personal income tax.

The tax for operators is 4% of turnover, calculated on the basis of all income from operations minus payouts and refunded wagers – that is, effectively GGR. In the original version of the decree, the regime was to be introduced starting in 2025. 

Decree UP-95 of May 19, 2026, made specific changes: this is now a three-year pilot program beginning on July 1, 2026. By January 1, 2027, the National Agency for Prospective Projects (NAPP), together with the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Tax Committee, must submit a draft law to the Cabinet of Ministers amending the Tax Code. 

The entry threshold was set by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 814 of December 6, 2024: the operator must be a resident legal entity with a charter capital of at least 150,000 BCVs and a reserve fund of 75,000 BCVs deposited in a separate bank account; the capital may not be formed out of borrowed or pledged funds. No more than three intermediary individuals or legal entities can stand between the founder and ultimate beneficiary. Gaming servers must be located in Uzbekistan. The software and the Random Number Generator (RNG) must be tested and certified by an accredited laboratory.

A separate five-year license is issued for each activity. The state duty is 37,000 BCVs per year for each licensed activity – about UZS 16.3 bn at a BCV of 440,000 (15M calculation); re-issuance of a license costs 500 BCVs. At the same BCV, the minimum charter capital is about UZS 66 bn.

At the same time, the NAPP was developing the Unified State Register of Bets and Players, which stores player data, restrictions and limits, as well as information on bets and payouts. The procedures for maintaining the register were approved in July 2025. As early as March 2026, the regulator acknowledged that the market existed only on paper. “There have been no license applications, but there is interest,” said Askarjon Zakirov, Head of the Department for the Development of the Crypto-Asset Turnover Sphere at the NAPP, at a press conference on March 18. According to him, companies have requested time to prepare, and the registry system is already ready.

Who Received the Licenses and What About the Offshore Market?

On July 31, 2026, the NAPP issued the first four licenses pursuant to Orders 62–65 of July 27. Olimpbet LLC received ITO License No. 001 for online gaming via olimpbet.uz and BF License No. 001 for bookmaking activities. Aurum Vale LLC received ITO No. 002 for oltinbet.uz and BF No. 002. Both license pairs are valid until July 30, 2031. Olimpbet’s charter capital is UZS 63.1 bn and Aurum Vale’s is UZS 67.2 bn. Both were above the threshold in force when the licenses were issued (UZS 61.8 bn at a BCV of 412,000). After the BCV rose to 440,000 on September 1, 2026, the threshold for new applicants is UZS 66 bn. Aurum Vale was registered in July 2025, while Olimpbet was registered back in June 2021 – meaning the Uzbek legal entity waited five years for its license. Olimpbet is the same brand as that of the largest taxpayer among bookmakers in Kazakhstan, but the founders of the Uzbek LLC listed in the registry are individuals, not a Kazakhstani company.

The offshore market has not gone anywhere in the meantime. According to Blask’s July 2026 estimates, unlicensed brands account for about 65% of measurable demand, and their monthly CEB (an estimate of player spending based on Blask’s methodology) has grown by 64% over the past year, reaching $25.5 million. According to Blask, the largest offshore brands are 1xBet, Jojobet, Mostbet, 1win, and HoliganBet.

Tools for putting pressure on offshore operators are advertising and blocking. Article 46 of the “On Advertising” law prohibits the advertising of gambling and other risk-based games. In the first 11 months of 2025, the Competition Promotion and Consumer Protection Committee referred 86 bookmaker-promoting websites to the supervisory authority for blocking, and approximately 70 of them were blocked. In June 2025, four bloggers were held accountable for advertising Melbet, and in February 2026, cases were filed against two more. In May 2026, the committee inspected a banner featuring the bookmaker’s logo at the Nadir Divan-Begi madrasah in Bukhara. Decree UP-68 mandated the preparation of amendments to the “On Advertising” law, but we found no public clarification stating that licensees are permitted to advertise.

Kazakhstan: Every Bet Must Go Through the Government System

Sports betting has long been legal in Kazakhstan, but since 2024, the government has been steadily restricting the market. Law No. 116-VIII of July 8, 2024, prohibited persons under the age of 21, civil servants, and military personnel, as well as debtors listed in the Unified Register of Debtors, from participating in gambling. The same law also introduced a provision on a unified accounting system into the law “On Gambling Business.” On December 20, 2024, the government established the “Operator of the Unified Accounting System” LLP, which is 100% state-owned.

The key document is Law No. 246-VIII of December 30, 2025. Under the current version of the “On Gambling Business” law, the UAS is a software and hardware system that accepts payments in electronic money and records bets and payouts. A bookmaker or betting agency “is not authorized to accept bets without recording them in the unified accounting system” (Art. 12). Winnings from a bet placed via an electronic cashier are credited only to the participant’s e-wallet in the UAS from which the bet was made. Electronic cashiers outside the .KZ and .ҚАЗ domains are prohibited, and online casinos are completely banned. A related law, No. 247-VIII, introduced a fine for failure to integrate with the UAS: 300 Monthly Calculation Indexes (MCI) for medium-sized businesses and 1,000 MCIs for large businesses, along with the suspension of the license.

Adilet Turganbaev, Chairman of the Committee for the Regulation of Gambling Business and Lottery of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Kazakhstan, described the system’s purpose in July 2025 as follows: “Players will be screened, and access will be blocked for those who are prohibited from participating.” At the time, he claimed that once it was launched, the UAS would be able to block up to a thousand illegal websites per day.

In practice, the transition proved to be painful. On March 3–4, 2026, banks suspended deposits and withdrawals for nearly all legal bookmakers. Payments now go through the Nomapay system, in which, according to Offside.kz, Kazpost acts as one of the e-money issuers. “Frightening warning letters from the regulator are forcing payment operators to take the most drastic measures,” said Ruslan Suleymanov, CEO of Tennisi. By April 1, payments were operational for four operators – Fonbet, Ubet, Olimpbet, and Tennisi – while 1xBet expected to complete integration by the end of April. According to Blask, the aggregate index of legal brands (based on search interest, not turnover) for January–June 2026 fell by nearly 70%. The share of offshore activity rose from 3% in February to 12% in April.

Kazakhstan: Money, Advertising, Blocking

Deductions. Government Resolution No. 167 of March 12, 2026, requires bookmakers and totalizators to remit 3.3% of each bet accepted; this requirement took effect on March 27. The funds are distributed as follows: 45% to the unified operator for off-budget sports financing, 21% each to the National Olympic Committee and the “Qazaqstan Halqyna” fund, and 13% to the UAS and its operator. Note that the 3.3% is calculated based on turnover, not GGR. Assuming a bookmaker’s margin of 8% of turnover (for illustrative purposes), this amounts to approximately 41% of GGR (calculated by 15M). Corporate income tax is levied on top of this: under the new Tax Code, which took effect on January 1, 2026, a higher rate of 25% applies to the gambling industry instead of the standard 20%.

Scale. According to data from the Center for Investigative Journalism, as reported by Finratings.kz, bookmakers paid 67 billion tenge in taxes in 2024, compared to 113 billion in 2022. About 56% of that amount came from NetBet LLP (Olimpbet), with another 18.9 billion tenge coming from Realbet (1xBet).

Advertising. Article 13 of the Law “On Advertising” prohibits advertising of bookmakers and totalizators on the street (except in gambling zones), on buildings (except for sports facilities during competitions), on public transportation, in the mass media, and on online platforms. Law No. 185-VIII of April 25, 2025, added a ban on promotional messages sent to mobile devices and retained the following exceptions: the licensee’s official website, media outlets focused exclusively on sports, and live broadcasts of international competitions. The content of the advertisement is limited to the name, trademark, address, website, and license details, without bonuses or odds. Advertising for online casinos is prohibited separately.

Blocking and payments. The authorized agency maintains a list of illegal foreign operators. Payment service providers are deemed to have been notified five business days after the list’s publication and are required to cease providing services. Monitoring data from the UAS is forwarded to the Ministry of Culture and Information to restrict access to websites. According to Blask, citing prosud.kz, on May 1, 2026, the Financial Monitoring Agency required mobile operators to block payments to illegal online casinos.

Zones. The only exception applies to foreigners. Since May 17, 2026, only foreigners and stateless persons have been allowed in gambling establishments and bookmaker offices along the Caspian Sea coast in the Mangystau Region, along the shore of Lake Alakol, and in several districts of the Almaty and East Kazakhstan regions. In the summer of 2026, local authorities designated five such areas in three regions.

Two Regimes in One Table

Table 1. Comparison of regimes as of October 22, 2026. Sources: 1–9, 12–14, 17, 20–22, 24.

A Timeline of Tighter Restrictions in Kazakhstan

Table 2. Timeline of Tighter Measures in Kazakhstan. Sources: 12–18, 20, 22–24.

What Does That Mean?

To operators. Entry into Uzbekistan is possible, but only through a local legal entity with capital exceeding UZS 66 bn, reserves, local servers, and certified software. The first two licensees received their licenses five years and one year after registration, respectively, so plan for a long process. The 4% tax on GGR is one of the lowest in the region, but advertising is prohibited, so you’ll have to attract players through your brand and product. In Kazakhstan, there are almost no new entrants: a 3.3% tax on turnover plus a 25% corporate income tax and the cost of integration with the Unified Accounting System make the market challenging even for existing players.

To affiliates. In Uzbekistan, any advertising of gambling is a violation, and the regulator actively prosecutes bloggers. In Kazakhstan, legal advertising is limited to the operator’s website and sports media, and its content is restricted to the name and license number. Traditional affiliate traffic with bonuses in both markets operates exclusively through offshore operators, which means it is subject to blocking and carries the risk of administrative proceedings. If your portfolio is focused on the CIS, it’s best to view these two regions as a source of brand and media contracts with legal operators, rather than as a CPA market.

To providers. In Uzbekistan, software and random number generators must be certified by an accredited laboratory. In August 2026, the NAPP added GLI to its list of approved laboratories. There are only two clients so far, but every new licensee will be looking for certified content. In Kazakhstan, demand is limited to sports: online casinos are prohibited, and betting on events generated by software is not allowed, except for live broadcasts.

To payment companies. Kazakhstan has demonstrated a model in which the private payment business operated by bookmakers is replaced by a state-run system: a single player wallet in the UAS, settlements exclusively in e-money through a designated system, and a mandatory list of illegal operators. For PSPs working with offshore entities, the risk is now legal, not just reputational. In Uzbekistan, payments are made via bank cards, and Uzbek licensees will be needed by banks and payment systems as their first legal clients.

Methodology

As of October 22, 2026. The regulations are based on the texts of the laws available on lex.uz and zakon.uchet.kz (the “Әділет” mirror site) in their current versions; all other facts are based on the media sources cited. The BCV has been UZS 440,000 since September 1, 2026 (Decree UP-115 of 23 June 2026); all BCV amounts are converted at this rate, except the threshold at the date of license issuance, which is given at the then-applicable BCV of 412,000. Blask Index and CEB are Blask estimates based on search interest, not operator reports. The conversion of 3.3% of turnover to a share of GGR is calculated by 15M based on a hypothetical margin of 8%. Quotes are taken from media publications and translated by 15M.

Sources

1. Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. UP-68 dated April 19, 2024, “О мерах по совершенствованию регулирования организации и проведения лотерей и игр, основанных на риске,” as amended by Decree No. UP-95 dated May 19, 2026 — legalization effective January 1, 2025; NAPP; 4% turnover tax; three-year pilot program starting July 1, 2026; minimum age of 18; exemption of winnings from personal income tax. https://lex.uz/ru/docs/6899275
2. NAPP, “Реестр лицензий” (as of October 22, 2026) — four licenses issued to Olimpbet and Aurum Vale; Orders No. 62–65. https://napp.uz/ru/pages/rbglr
3. Spot.uz, “Кабмин утвердил требования к организаторам азартных игр, лотерей и ставок,” December 13, 2024 — Resolution No. 814: minimum authorized capital of 150,000 BCVs; reserve fund of 75,000 BCVs; residency requirements; server requirements; three-tier structure; certification; 500 BCVs for re-issuance. https://www.spot.uz/ru/2024/12/13/gambling-regulation/