Just ten years ago, Kazakhstan’s gambling market was moderate. From 2015 to 2019, the annual volume of gambling and betting services did not exceed 24 billion tenge. However, 2020, the year of the pandemic, marked the starting point for the country’s “bookmakerization”: the gambling sector showed a six-fold growth, Finprom.kz reports with reference to data from the Bureau of National Statistics.
In 2022, the volume of the gambling industry jumped to 553.7 billion tenge, a 7.5-fold increase over the year. From 2023 to 2025, this market stabilized at approximately 470-480 billion tenge annually—20 times higher than the figures from ten years ago.
The structure of the gambling market has undergone a radical transformation in recent years. While medium and large operators previously played a key role, by 2025, small businesses accounted for 82% of the industry volume, or 388 billion tenge. In 2019, small businesses accounted for only 11.5%.
The scale of the problem is confirmed not only by financial reports but also by social statistics. According to Deputy Finance Minister Yerzhan Birzhanov, approximately 700,000 Kazakhstanis place bets regularly. The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market noted that active involvement in gambling can affect the possibility of receiving bank loans: if regular transfers to bookmaker accounts are noted, banks may take them into account when assessing the borrower’s financial performance.
Foreign companies continue to hold a significant share of the Kazakh gambling market. In 2024, they accounted for 296.2 billion tenge. In 2025, this figure fell to 217.2 billion tenge, but money continues to be funneled out of the country through international betting platforms.
The official figure of 700,000 active gamblers reflects only the visible part of the problem—those who interact with legal, licensed operators. The actual number is much higher. Alongside the legal market, the “gray” segment is rapidly growing: unlicensed bookmakers and online casinos registered in foreign jurisdictions effectively operate outside the Kazakh legal framework—they do not pay taxes, do not comply with player protection requirements, and are inaccessible to Kazakh regulators.
Bloggers and influencers have become their main promotional tools: gambling advertisements, disguised as personal recommendations, reach millions of Kazakh users on Instagram, TikTok, and Telegram. This format is particularly dangerous, as it creates the illusion of easy money and primarily affects young people under 30, who, according to sociologists, already make up the majority of problem gamblers.
In Kazakhstan, gambling advertising is prohibited, but the bulk of such advertising comes from bloggers in Russia and other CIS countries, where Kazakhstani legislation does not apply. Their content is freely consumed by Kazakhstani audiences, and unlicensed platforms attract new gamblers. The gambling market in Kazakhstan has become a problem affecting public finances, the banking sector, the family, and the mental health of hundreds of thousands of citizens. Without strict advertising regulation, blocking of unlicensed platforms, and genuine support for problem gamblers, the figure of 700,000 gamblers will only grow.
