Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, has implemented a National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) resolution to impose sanctions on 120 individuals and 287 legal entities which includes betting and lottery companies.

According to reports, President Zelensky signed Decree No. 145/2023 to implement the sanctions made by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on March 10, 2023, against people and organizations specifically connected to the betting and lottery industry.

In his statement, Zelenskyy said, “These are more than 280 companies and 120 people who, through gambling business schemes, worked against Ukraine, withdrew funds from our state and financed various Russian schemes. It took some time to prepare the decision. It has been thoroughly worked out and closes schemes worth tens of billions.”

The sanctioned legal entities are Sportbet, Sportloto, Bet.Ru, Betcity, PokerMatch UA, Matchbet, Leo Financial Company, Parimatch LLC, Parimatch Foundation, Parimatch United Investments Limited. The duration of the sanctions imposed on these firms is 50 years, as reported by Ukrinform.

Leo Financial Company is a payment organization of the global payment system LEO, whose license was cancelled by the National Bank of Ukraine this week, among other reasons for irregularities involving the service of the gambling business.

Meanwhile, many of these gambling websites have also been banned by the Indian Government and are considered illegal as they are not registered to operate in the country. Despite that, these companies use surrogate websites to promote themselves and lure in more people.

An example is Parimatch, one of the infamous offshore illegal betting websites that uses Parimatch News as its surrogate and sponsors several sports events as well as promotes itself on social media platforms. It is to be seen what implications there will be on the company in India where it is active despite government advisories and a ban on its domain once before.