Kazakhstan Updates Bank Checks on Casino Payments From October 16

The changes are contained in Resolution No. 134, adopted by the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market on September 28. The document was registered on September 30 and officially published on October 5. Its provisions take effect ten calendar days after publication.

The October amendments build on existing restrictions rather than introducing a new gambling-payment ban. Under bank risk-management rules adopted in April 2026, Kazakhstan’s banks were already required to identify and block payments to listed online casinos and certain digital-asset exchanges. The September resolution revises the transaction-screening and monitoring requirements governing those controls.

Four Types of Transactions Are Covered

The amended requirements call for automated digital systems capable of identifying potentially unlawful transfers and restricting or rejecting transactions in accordance with banks’ internal procedures. Screening covers:

1. Payments to electronic and internet casinos;
2. Transfers to foreign bookmakers and totalisators without a Kazakh gambling licence;
3. Payments to bookmakers and totalisators operating outside the unified system that records stakes and winnings;
4. Transactions with digital-asset service providers not regulated by the National Bank or Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC).

These categories do not all have identical treatment. The regulations separately instruct banks to identify and block payments to online casinos on lists compiled by the authorities, along with payments to non-AIFC digital-asset exchanges on the relevant lists.

The text does not prohibit every cryptocurrency transaction or every transfer to a licensed bookmaker.

Three Payments for AML Checks, Six for Lending

A comparison of the regulatory provisions shows two different gambling-payment tests, both using KZT300,000 (about $665 at the National Bank’s October 13 rate) over six months.

Under banks’ anti-money-laundering customer-risk criteria, three or more gambling payments totalling over KZT300,000 are a specified risk indicator. For lending assessments, the definition of a borrower actively involved in gambling requires at least six payments totalling more than KZT300,000 during the previous six completed months.

The lending test therefore requires twice as many transactions, even though the amount threshold is the same. Both criteria existed before this October update. They serve different purposes and should not be treated as a single rule.

For borrowers meeting the six-payment test, the rules rely on official income instead of alternative indicators such as debit-card spending when determining income for credit assessment.

Drop Accounts Remain a Separate Problem

Payment flows can also run through individuals instead of a casino’s own merchant account. In September, 15M reported that investigators had traced more than KZT415 million (about $939,000 at the National Bank’s September 28 rate) in Vavada player payments through 23 third-party bank accounts in Kazakhstan. The authorities did not provide a split between deposits and payouts.

The revised bank requirements also address detection of money mules, including suspicious account relationships and device-sharing patterns. Banks must investigate and report transactions showing signs of unlawful activity through the prescribed channels.

The October 16 amendments update an existing control framework. How banks apply the revised checks to payments routed through third-party accounts remains a point to watch. The resolution provides no estimate of how many additional transactions banks will block.