Kazakhstan gambling self-exclusion list surpasses 224,000 registrations
The country’s self-exclusion system continues to grow as authorities consider stricter measures for operators and implement broader reforms across the regulated gambling sector.
Kazakhstan.- Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov has reported that 463,829 applications for voluntary self-exclusion from gambling had been submitted through the country’s e-government portal between the system’s launch in March 2024 and June 1 of this year. Of those, 224,793 (about 48 per cent) remain active.
The government is now considering changes to its self-exclusion framework, including extending the maximum self-exclusion period to 10 years and introducing administrative penalties for gambling operators that allow excluded individuals to participate in gaming.
Over the past two years, the country has implemented a series of regulatory reforms, prohibiting gambling among certain public officials, military personnel and law enforcement officers as well as individuals listed in the national debtors register. The government has also tightened advertising regulations for bookmakers and totalisators, prohibited gambling-related SMS marketing campaigns.
As for enforcement efforts against illegal online platforms, officials reported that more than 55,000 unauthorised online casino websites have been blocked through the national cyber-monitoring system.
The country has also introduced new rules limiting access to casinos, slot machine halls and betting venues in several regions exclusively to foreign visitors. In February, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed legislation allowing four additional gambling zones alongside the existing locations in Kapchagay and Burabay.
