EGR has partnered with 4H Agency to bring its readers a series of long-form articles on the requirements and key facts and figures for a host of markets throughout the world.
Tapping into 4H’s talent pool of experts, the articles will outline the regulatory framework and entry requirements for interested parties, as well as an insider’s view on how the market could shape up in the coming years.
Here, the series continues with Kazakhstan, with commentary from 4H partner and head of consulting department, Ivan Kurochkin.
Market overview
Kazakhstan’s gambling industry has undergone significant transformation over the past two decades. Initially marked by rapid expansion in the post-Soviet era, the sector was brought under tighter control with the introduction of new gambling legislation in 2007. This law restricted casino operations to two designated gambling zones and explicitly prohibited online casinos.
Despite the ban on igaming, licensed land-based betting and totalizator operators are permitted to offer online sports betting or totalizator services under strict regulation. As of 2024, the sector has shown notable economic significance: the gambling industry generated ~$926m in service volume, a 31.4% increase from the previous year. Realbet alone accounted for over a third of total taxes paid. Kazakhstan’s population reached 20.6 million in 2024, with GDP at ~$288bn and average annual income levels continuing to grow. Online gambling audiences are predominantly male, with the core user base concentrated in Astana and falling within the 25-44 age bracket. While women make up a smaller portion of casino traffic, tailored content is increasingly relevant for this demographic.
Regulations
Kazakhstan issues four types of gambling licences:
- Land-based casinos.
- Slot machine halls.
- Sports betting.
- Totalizator.
Online operations are allowed only for licensed sports betting and totalizator operators – no additional online licence is required. Online casinos are strictly prohibited.
Applicants must be Kazakhstan-registered legal entities and meet the following core requirements:
- Ownership (or long-term lease) of a compliant property: casinos and slot halls must be located in hotels rated three stars or above; sports betting and totalizator operators must also comply with health and safety standards.
- Ownership of gaming or betting equipment.
- Security contracts with licensed private security firms.
- Internal rules for operations, game conduct and bet acceptance, provided in Kazakh and Russian.
- Financial security deposits placed in Kazakhstan banks. These reserves can only be used to cover player winnings and must be replenished within three business days if depleted.
Gambling venues are limited to two legal zones: the Kapchagay reservoir area in Almaty Region and the Burabay district in Akmola Region. Casino premises must host at least 30 gaming tables; slot halls require at least 60 machines with a programmed RTP of 95% or higher – both shall have samples of chips and other identifiers in Kazakhstan’s two official languages. Equipment must comply with Kazakhstan’s technical regulations.
All venues must operate in non-residential properties and cannot be located in schools, hospitals, religious institutions, public transport facilities or government buildings.
Security and transparency standards include:
- CCTV coverage of cash desks and gaming areas, with seven-day data retention.
- Physical security measures for cash desks (armored glass, metal doors, alarms).
- Payouts to be made within three calendar days upon verification of ID.
- Prominent display of responsible gambling warnings.
Sports betting and totalizator operators additionally must:
- Accept bets only via approved physical or electronic cash desks.
- Use certified hardware-software complexes to calculate odds, process bets, store player data and interact with state monitoring systems.
- Register each player before accepting bets.
- Accept bets only on real upcoming events held by accredited sports bodies.
The Kazakh regulator bans:
- Any form of online casinos, as well as any offshore operators and mirror sites without local licences.
- Online betting interfaces not registered under .kz or .ҚАЗ domains.
- Wagers in forms other than cash (except in land-based casinos) and payments to offshore operators.
- Bets on software-generated or simulated events (non-live).
- Acceptance of bets or use of gambling equipment outside licensed venues and zones.
- Issue of the license to entities with criminal convictions or histories of tax debt or bankruptcy.
Licence cost and term
Each licence is issued for ten years. The cost of the licence amounts to:
- ~$29,000 for land-based casinos and slot machine halls.
- ~$4,800 for sports betting and totalizator.
There is also a requirement for financial security deposit in amount of:
- ~$451,000 for land-based casinos and slot machines halls.
- ~$300,700 for sports betting.
- ~$75,100 for totalizator.
Taxation
Gambling tax is levied monthly based on the type of facility or terminal in operation:
- Casino gaming table ~$12,400 per unit.
- Slot machine ~$450 per unit.
- Land-based sports betting and totalizator cashier terminal ~$2,250 per unit.
- Online sports betting terminal ~$21,300 per unit.
- Online totalizator terminal ~$30,000 per unit.
In addition to gaming-specific levies, licensed operators are subject to general taxation, including:
- 20% corporate income tax on annual profits.
- 12% VAT on taxable supplies and services.
- 20% withholding tax (WHT) on payments to non-residents, covering a wide scope of services such as consulting, legal, engineering, marketing, management and financial services. Notably, these payments are taxed as Kazakhstan-sourced income regardless of where the services are physically performed.
Responsible gambling and AML
Participation in gambling is strictly prohibited for individuals under 21, those with outstanding enforcement orders for financial obligations, persons under court-imposed restrictions and individuals listed in the official self-exclusion registry.
Self-exclusion is available to Kazakh citizens aged 21 and older for a term between six months and 10 years, based on a personal written or digitally signed requests. Family members may also request registration for legally incapacitated individuals under a court decision.
Operators are required to:
- Display responsible gambling rules prominently on their websites and in physical venues. These rules must include licence information, the scope of offered services, self-exclusion procedures, warning messages on the risks of gambling addiction and contacts for psychological assistance.
- Refuse access to all individuals listed in the self-exclusion register.
- Conduct mandatory identity checks before allowing participation in any form of gambling.
- Process all payments and winnings through the Unified Accounting System (UAS), which automatically blocks transactions involving restricted individuals.
Operators are classified as reporting entities under Kazakhstan’s AML regime and must fulfill a wide range of obligations:
- Transaction monitoring: Any gambling payout (cash or non-cash) of ~$2,000 or more must be recorded as a reportable transaction and passed through proper KYC checks.
- Customer due diligence: Operators must identify and verify customers and, where applicable, their beneficial owners. Enhanced due diligence is required for higher-risk cases, and records must be maintained in accordance with national guidelines.
- Reporting to authorities: Operators must submit data on reportable transactions to the Financial Monitoring Agency, including information on the operator, parties involved, transaction details and any indicators of suspicious activity. If repeated suspicious behaviour is observed, a separate Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) must be filed within three working days, describing the pattern and associated risks.
- Internal controls: Operators must implement internal AML/CFT systems, including documented policies, appointment of a compliance officer, staff training and risk-based procedures aligned with national and sectoral risk assessments.
- Targeted financial sanctions: Operators must screen customers against sanctions lists related to terrorism, proliferation of WMDs, and other restricted entities and enforce freezing measures as mandated.
- Refusal of service: If customer identification or verification cannot be completed, the operator is obliged to decline the relationship or transaction and, if necessary, terminate existing business relationships.
- Confidential reporting: AML-related data transfers to the Financial Monitoring Agency are explicitly exempt from commercial secrecy and personal data breach liabilities under Kazakhstan law (excluding banking secrecy rules).
- System integration: The UAS must support automated transaction tracking, restrict access for excluded individuals and facilitate AML compliance, including cooperation with government oversight systems.
Marketing
Kazakhstan maintains a highly restrictive advertising regime for gambling, particularly targeting online casinos and sports betting operators. Advertising of online casinos is outright prohibited.
Marketing for licensed sports betting operators and totalizators is only permitted under strictly limited conditions:
- Outdoor advertising is banned, except within the designated gambling zones defined by national legislation.
- Indoor advertising is allowed only inside sports venues during the course of sporting events.
- Advertising on vehicles is not permitted.
- Media and digital restrictions prohibit advertising through mass media, online platforms, cinema and information services. Exceptions include operator’s own official website, sports-themed media registered with the media authority in Kazakhstan and broadcasts of international sports events aired by local Kazakhstani TV channels.
- Direct advertising to mobile subscriber devices is prohibited.
When permitted, advertising content must remain strictly informative and may include only operator’s name, trademark elements, registered address, official website and licence number, date of issue and expiration date.
Kazakhstan’s advertising rules reflect a regulatory intent to limit public exposure to gambling promotions and confine awareness to verified, licensed operators within a controlled informational scope.
Market specifics for entry
Kazakhstan’s online gambling landscape presents a paradoxical mix of low player value, high technical barriers and strong affiliate competition. The market’s purchasing power remains modest, with average deposits low and acquisition costs high, making ROI on marketing a long play. Operators must prioritise retention, funnel efficiency and player LTV through advanced CRM, loyalty mechanics and robust support to stay profitable.
Legally, Kazakhstan’s white market is narrowly focused on licensed sports betting, which is permitted both online and offline. The total number of authorised operators remains competitive: as of November 2025, there are 12 licensed sports betting operators (10 with online presence), one totalizator, six casinos and eight slot machine halls. While interest in online gambling continues to grow, the strict prohibition on online casinos restricts legal diversification. Many offshore casino brands still operate via rotating mirror sites, but as their exposure increases, so does the risk of domain blocking and reputational harm.
Linguistically, the audience is primarily Russian-speaking, requiring applicable localisation, but a meaningful Kazakh-speaking demographic is emerging. For long-term growth, operators must consider full product and support localisation in Kazakh, as well as culturally sensitive campaigns.
On the infrastructure side, the state-mandated UAS acts as a technical bottleneck. All licensed gambling operators are obliged to process transactions exclusively through the UAS, which charges up to 1.5% in commission. This centralisation reduces payment provider competition and creates challenges for platform integrators and aggregators, which must ensure deep compliance-level integration with UAS, the National Bank and tax authorities. While these frameworks offer strong oversight, they also increase operational costs and limit flexibility, pushing a portion of players to offshore platforms with more liberal payment channels.
Combined with a lack of B2B licensing options and legal clarity, service providers remain in a regulatory grey area, stalling innovation and scale in the local support ecosystem.
The 4H view
From our perspective, Kazakhstan is a structurally unique market in the CIS region. Online casinos are prohibited, and the only fully legal format is sports betting and totalizator, tied to physical presence in designated gambling zones. At the same time, demand for online products remains structurally high, with a significant share of players using offshore operators. We do not expect this imbalance to change in the foreseeable future: growing demand for online gambling will continue to collide with strict regulation, preserving a large grey segment and sustained pressure on regulated operators.
High interest in the market has already led to saturation, especially in social media. Against the backdrop of a relatively low average spend, this compresses margins and forces partners to invest in advanced retention and funnel strategies rather than simple acquisition buys. We expect further growth in acquisition costs, a gradual shift from pure CPA to hybrid models and stricter requirements for lead quality in the market. At the same time, the public debate around gambling addiction and participation of civil servants in betting makes the market extremely sensitive to scandals, even though corruption risks remain a known feature of the local environment.
In terms of go-to-market, the most successful operating methodology in Kazakhstan focuses on the player’s motivation to earn, not just to be entertained. Products and campaigns that highlight payouts, high RTP games, welcome bonuses, free spins and cashback perform better than pure entertainment angles, but they should avoid clickbait and explicit promises of easy money, since that audience tends to churn fast and convert poorly.
Looking ahead, the main regulatory push is tighter control in responsible gambling and AML. We expect new self-limitation tools, additional player protection programs, stricter limits and broader prohibitions. Regulators are clearly trying to make offshore operation as difficult and expensive as possible through blocking, fines and constraints on payment methods and advertising. As a result, offshore models are gradually losing economic sense for Kazakhstan.
The post The 4H View: Everything you need to know about Kazakhstan first appeared on EGR Intel.
4H Agency delivers its monthly insight into emerging markets’ key requirements. This time, Kazakhstan is in the spotlight
The post The 4H View: Everything you need to know about Kazakhstan first appeared on EGR Intel.