{"id":777044741,"date":"2026-07-10T08:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777044741"},"modified":"2026-07-13T01:53:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T04:53:31","slug":"kazakhstan-pm-says-banks-blocked-us21m-in-illegal-online-casino-payments-in-six-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/kazakhstan-pm-says-banks-blocked-us21m-in-illegal-online-casino-payments-in-six-months","title":{"rendered":"Kazakhstan PM says banks blocked US$21m in illegal online casino payments in six months"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Olzhas Bektenov says 402,000 gambling-related transactions were stopped between October 2025 and March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Kazakhstan.- Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov<\/strong> has informed Kazakhstan’s Parliament that banks blocked 402,000 gambling-related transactions <\/strong>worth more than KZT10bn (US$21m) over six months ending in March 2026<\/strong>. He said the country had also blacklisted foreign online casino operators and 110 payment providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the start of the year, authorities have opened 15 criminal cases covering 40 instances of illegal online casino activity and detained 11 financial sector employees accused of assisting such activity, he said. In addition, 1,144 bank cards used by alleged money mules have been frozen, with further investigations under way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country\u2019s Unified System for Accounting of Betting and Gambling Games, launched in March, had identified approximately 433,000 people by early June and blocked more than 135,000 from placing bets<\/strong>. Most of those excluded were registered debtors, while others had voluntarily self-excluded or were subject to additional legal restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Azerbaijan Central Bank sounds warning over extent illegal gambling payments<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olzhas Bektenov says 402,000 gambling-related transactions were stopped between October 2025 and March 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":680,"featured_media":777043863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Kazakhstan's Prime Minister, Olzhas Bektenov, reported that banks blocked over 400,000 illegal gambling transactions totaling KZT10bn (US$21m) between October 2025 and March 2026. The nation has intensified its crackdown, blacklisting foreign online casino operators and 110 payment providers, initiating criminal cases, and freezing assets. Concurrently, its new Unified System for Accounting of Betting and Gambling Games has identified and excluded over 135,000 individuals, primarily registered debtors or self-excluded players.","focusai_entities":"Olzhas Bektenov, Kazakhstan's Parliament, Unified System for Accounting of Betting and Gambling Games","focusai_location":"Kazakhstan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.7), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Kazakhstan Regulatory Impact","query":"What are the specific implications for licensed B2B and B2C operators considering market entry into Kazakhstan, given the aggressive enforcement against illegal activities and the implementation of the Unified System for Accounting of Betting and Gambling Games?"},{"label":"Payment Provider Risk","query":"How will the blacklisting of 110 payment providers by Kazakhstan impact the due diligence processes and risk assessments for international payment processors operating in or adjacent to regulated iGaming markets?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16331,439],"tags":[25294,24971,24634,24887],"class_list":["post-777044741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elsewhere-news","category-legal-news","tag-block","tag-gambling-related-transactions","tag-illegal-online-gambling","tag-kazakhstan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777044741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777044741"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777044741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777044750,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777044741\/revisions\/777044750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777043863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777044741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777044741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777044741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}