Kyrgyzstan Says 24 Online Casino Operators Hold Licences
Kairat Mamatov, chairman of the Financial Market Regulation and Supervision Service, disclosed the figure during a parliamentary committee meeting on September 15. He also said Kyrgyz citizens continue to use gambling sites registered outside the country despite being barred from locally licensed casinos, according to a local report on the meeting.
Kyrgyzstan reopened its gambling sector under legislation adopted in 2022. The law excludes Kyrgyz citizens from the permitted customer base, leaving licensed gambling businesses focused on foreign customers. The Gambling Act lists Kyrgyz citizens among those who cannot be clients of gambling establishments.
22 Licence Records Now Appear in the Public Register
The regulator’s own database gives another way to track how quickly the online sector has expanded. The Financial Supervision Service register currently shows:
- 12 virtual-casino administration records;
- 10 virtual-casino operator records.
That is 22 records across the two online categories. The number should not be read as a direct substitute for Mamatov’s figure of 24 operators because companies and licence types are counted differently.
The change from the market’s early stage is clearer. A Financial Supervision Service risk assessment recorded only four administration and four operator licences as of March 2024. It also said the sector had not yet started operating because of regulatory and banking hurdles.
On that basis, the number of licence records across the two categories has risen from eight to 22, or 2.75 times the March 2024 level.
Online Licences Added KGS10.9M ($124,600) in 2024
Licence issuance has also produced direct budget revenue. The regulator’s 2024 annual report recorded KGS178.9 million ($2.05 million) from licensing land-based and online casinos in 2024. Of that amount, KGS168 million ($1.92 million) came from land-based casino licences.
The difference puts online-casino licensing receipts at KGS10.9 million ($124,600) for 2024, according to a 15M calculation. The conversions use the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic’s official September 15, 2026 rate of KGS87.45 per US dollar.
The latest operator count suggests the licensed online segment has continued to expand since then. At the same time, Mamatov’s comments point to a separate problem for regulators: domestic players remain outside the licensed local market and can instead turn to offshore platforms.