Kazakhstan approves gambling reporting requirements

Licensed gambling operators will be required to report on gambling activities.

Kazakhstan.- The government of Kazakhstan has approved tax code amendments to require licensed gambling operators to report on customer gambling activity. Gambling operators must submit reports on customers directly to the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of the Ministry of Finance.

Betting and totalizator operators will need to integrate both hardware and software from the national tax agency in order to automatically report data on the size of bets, losses and winnings. Meanwhile, banks will have to provide data on transactions within a 10-day period, including transfers and the authorisation of transactions with gambling operators.   

SRC director Aliya Jetibaeva has insisted that the confidentiality of consumers and their activity will be maintained under Article 30 of the Tax Code and that the requirements conform to OCED rules. Staff have signed non-disclosure agreements to protect confidential information, the government said.

It is not yet clear how Kazakhstan plans to advance with the regulation of gambling and whether it will adopt a European regulatory model. It’s thought that other countries in the CIS and Central Asia could take pointers from Kazakhstan’s lead as they revise their own gambling regulations.

Tightening rules for gambling in Kazakhstan

In October, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports confirmed plans to tighten rules for access to gambling. Vice minister Yerzhan Erkinbayev said the changes would include an increase in the minimum age for gambling from 21 to 25.

He said the move was intended to end gambling addiction among young people and to protect people from debt. The ministry will introduce new administrative duties to monitor the age of customers in venues and will require the police to present policies for handling venues that serve underage customers.

The ministry also plans to restrict access to gambling for people who have overdue loans or other financial obligations. To date, Kazakhstan has no specific legislative framework for gambling at the national level, although the provinces of Almaty and Akmola have been allowed to host state-owned casinos in authorised areas. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has called for increased consumer protection in the sector.