Legal casino gambling age in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan has moved from a licensing regime, to a near-total ban, and back to a tightly limited licensing model within fifteen years. A prohibition on gambling activity took effect on 1 January 2012, and press reports state that bookmakers and totalisators were also banned from 2015. Since the Law “On Gambling Activity in the Kyrgyz Republic” (No. 50 of 30 June 2022) came into force, licensed companies may again run casinos, gaming-machine halls, bookmakers, totalisators and online casinos, but only for foreign nationals aged 21 or over. Citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic may not be customers of any licensed gambling establishment.
Key points
- Law No. 191 on the prohibition of gambling activity, dated 1 November 2011, banned casinos and gaming machines from 1 January 2012; it was repealed in July 2022.
- Law No. 50 of 30 June 2022 re-legalised six forms of gambling under ten-year licences issued to limited liability companies and closed joint-stock companies.
- Article 15 of the 2022 law bars citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic from being clients of gambling establishments; foreign clients must be at least 21.
- The Financial Market Regulation and Supervision Service under the Ministry of Economy and Commerce is the designated gambling regulator.
- Organising gambling without a licence is a crime punishable by three to five years’ imprisonment, or five to eight years in aggravated cases, under amendments signed in October 2023.
- Gambling tax receipts reached KGS 443 million in January to August 2026, more than 95% of it from land-based casinos, according to Ministry of Finance figures reported by trade press.
Last reviewed: 7 October 2026.
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Historical development
In the 2000s Kyrgyzstan regulated gambling through licensing. The Law “On Gambling Activity in the Kyrgyz Republic” (No. 201 of 11 August 2008) defined gambling activity and gambling establishments such as casinos, totalisators, slot halls and betting shops, and set licensing and operating conditions (text of Law No. 201 of 2008).
That approach was reversed by the Law “On the Prohibition of Gambling Activity in the Kyrgyz Republic” (No. 191), dated 1 November 2011. It defined gambling activity as organising and providing access to games of chance in casinos, on slot machines and on virtual platforms, introduced a general ban on that activity across the country, and entered into force on 1 January 2012 (Law No. 191 on the prohibition of gambling activity). In May 2012 Parliament tightened the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Code of Administrative Responsibility to back the ban with sanctions against organisers of illegal gambling (24.kg, 31 May 2012). The ban law was amended by Law No. 74 of 8 April 2015, and press reports record that totalisators and bookmakers were prohibited from 2015.
The ban did not end gambling. In December 2015 the Ministry of Economy published a draft law on a specialised international trade and exhibition centre with an entertainment and gambling complex. It argued that the ban “did not eliminate gambling activity but drove it underground”, and estimated budget losses of more than KGS 500 million a year and the loss of over 5,000 jobs (Kaktus.media, 21 December 2015). That proposal was not enacted.
The Issyk-Kul gambling-zone proposals
The next attempt focused on the Issyk-Kul region, the country’s main lakeside tourist area. In April 2021 deputies including Baktybek Turusbekov, named as one of the initiators, proposed a bill that would allow gambling establishments only in Issyk-Kul region, within a specialised administrative district with a tourist-entertainment complex (24.kg, 8 April 2021). Parliament approved the bill in first reading on 21 April 2021 by 68 votes to 23, on the basis that only foreign nationals would be able to play (24.kg, 21 April 2021). President Sadyr Japarov supported it, saying casinos would be open “not for citizens of Kyrgyzstan, but only for foreigners and tourists” and describing protests as “black PR” (24.kg, 21 April 2021).
The law eventually adopted in 2022 was not limited to Issyk-Kul. The idea of a dedicated zone survived in policy discussion: a 2022 Ministry of Economy proposal would have let foreign casino visitors cross the border on a passport and travel directly to a gaming zone near the village of Tamchy, close to Issyk-Kul International Airport (Economist.kg, 5 July 2023).
Re-legalisation in 2022
Parliament passed the new gambling law on 22 June 2022 by 59 votes to 9 and President Japarov signed it on 30 June 2022 (Kaktus.media overview, November 2023; Current Time, 1 July 2022). The presidential press office said the aim was to attract additional resources to the state budget by creating favourable conditions for investment (24.kg, 30 June 2022). The 2011 ban law lost force on 20 July 2022. The first casino licence was bought in late April 2023 for KGS 84 million, and the first casino opened in Bishkek in May 2023 (OCCRP/Kloop, 26 May 2023).
Legal framework
The main instruments currently in force are:
- Law No. 50 of 30 June 2022 “On Gambling Activity in the Kyrgyz Republic”, as amended by Law No. 78 of 3 April 2023, Law No. 55 of 26 February 2024 and Law No. 175 of 4 November 2024 (consolidated text published by the regulator).
- Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 440 of 1 August 2022, which approved three regulations: on state regulation of gambling activity, on licensing of gambling activity, and on reporting and disclosure by gambling operators (text of Resolution No. 440). It has since been amended, including by Resolutions No. 36 of 30 January 2024, No. 491 of 22 August 2024 and No. 308 of 2 June 2025.
- The Criminal Code, the Code of Offences, the Tax Code, the Budget Code and the laws on licensing and advertising, which were amended alongside the 2022 law (24.kg, 30 June 2022).
Article 1 of the 2022 law defines the permitted forms. An online casino is the organisation and conduct of gambling in real time via the internet with the payment of winnings; an electronic (virtual) casino is a website or program giving access to gambling games on the internet; a bookmaker’s office is a gaming zone in which bets are concluded between the participants and the establishment on the outcome of an event; and a totalisator is a gaming zone in which participants bet against each other, with the pool shared among winners. Article 13(13) prohibits any gambling activity not provided for in Article 1.
The core restrictions in the 2022 law are as follows:
- only limited liability companies and closed joint-stock companies may organise gambling (Article 5);
- a licence is issued for ten years (Article 8(8));
- gambling establishments may not be placed in educational, medical, religious or cultural institutions or in residential premises, and casinos must operate within hotel complexes with a restaurant of at least 100 seats and at least 20 hotel rooms (Article 13);
- citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic may not be clients of gambling establishments, and foreign clients must be at least 21 years old (Article 15).
Before November 2024 the law also prohibited casinos in buildings wholly or partly in state or municipal ownership, or belonging to enterprises with a state stake. Law No. 175 of 4 November 2024 removed that restriction (see below).
Lotteries
Lotteries sit outside the six forms of gambling licensed under the 2022 law and are treated separately. The regulator has stated that organising and conducting lotteries without the appropriate licence or permission is unlawful, and in April 2024 it named eight unlawful lotteries promoted on YouTube and TikTok, warning that organisers face fines equal to their total revenue and possible criminal liability (Economist.kg, 17 April 2024). A November 2025 announcement describes the state enterprise KYRGYZLOTO as the operator of a new unified state lottery infrastructure (Economist.kg, 4 November 2025). The number and date of the lottery statute could not be verified for this guide.
Criminal law
Amendments to the Criminal Code signed on 23 October 2023 made it an offence to organise or conduct gambling, or provide access to it, without a licence, whether in a casino, on gaming machines or computer simulators, in an electronic (virtual) casino, or through a bookmaker or totalisator. The basic offence carries three to five years’ imprisonment; committing it as part of an organised group or criminal association, through abuse of office or with the involvement of minors carries five to eight years. Gaming equipment, stakes and winnings are subject to confiscation (Kaktus.media, 23 October 2023). The article number was not stated in the report reviewed.
These amendments followed a presidential decree of 23 December 2022, “On measures to suppress illegal gambling activity”. From 1 January 2023 it confined gaming machines to licensed casino premises, banning them from shopping centres, computer clubs and street locations (Economist.kg, 23 December 2022).
Regulator and licensing model
Kyrgyzstan operates a restricted licensing model: private companies may be licensed, but the domestic population is excluded as customers. The regulator is the Financial Market Regulation and Supervision Service under the Ministry of Economy and Commerce (often referred to by its former short name, Gosfinnadzor). Resolution No. 440 designated it as the authorised state body for regulating gambling activity. The current regulation published by the Service, in a provision amended on 30 January 2024, places online and electronic (virtual) casinos under its general supervision (Regulation on state regulation of gambling activity).
The regulation lists six licensable activities: casinos, gaming-machine halls, bookmaker’s offices, totalisators, online casinos and electronic (virtual) casinos. Each activity requires a separate licence.
Licence fees are set by Cabinet resolution and expressed in calculation indicators (one indicator is KGS 100). The draft published in July 2022 proposed KGS 84 million for a casino, online casino or virtual casino in cities of republican significance, KGS 42 million in Osh, Chui and Jalal-Abad regions and KGS 25 million in Batken, Naryn, Issyk-Kul and Talas regions; KGS 42 million for a gaming-machine hall; and KGS 10.5 million for a bookmaker or totalisator (Kaktus.media, 28 July 2022). The fee levels finally adopted were not verified for this guide.
According to a Cabinet submission of October 2024, three casino licences and four betting licences had been issued by then, bringing in KGS 210 million and KGS 42 million in licence fees respectively (Kaktus.media, 18 October 2024). No consolidated list of gambling licensees was found on the regulator’s gambling pages; its news section records licensing events, including a warning in August 2024 about the unlawful activity of a betting website whose operator had previously held a licence (Financial Market Regulation and Supervision Service, gambling news).
Operating rules were tightened by Cabinet Resolution No. 491 of 22 August 2024, adopted to implement Law No. 55 of 2024 (regulator announcement, 10 September 2024). As reported by Economist.kg, casinos must record cash desks, currency-exchange areas and registration points in real time and keep footage for three months; gaming-machine halls may operate only inside casinos with at least 60 machines; and bookmakers and totalisators may be opened only within casinos, with winners’ identity and non-Kyrgyz citizenship checked before payment (Economist.kg, 4 September 2024).
Online gambling and enforcement
Online casinos and electronic (virtual) casinos are lawful forms of gambling under the 2022 law, but only when licensed and only for foreign nationals aged 21 or over. In November 2023 two companies were reported to hold online casino licences, neither of which was yet operating (Kaktus.media, November 2023). The then Minister of Economy said in October 2023 that licensed operators would have to place their servers in Kyrgyzstan, that a single bank, RSK Bank, would process online gambling payments, that citizens would not be issued gaming cards, and that unlicensed online casinos would be blocked (Kaktus.media, 30 October 2023).
Recorded tax receipts suggest that the licensed online sector remains very small. Online and virtual casinos paid KGS 2.8 million in tax in January to August 2026, compared with KGS 422.7 million from land-based casinos (Focus Gaming News, 25 September 2026).
Offshore operators are a separate matter. Because citizens may not lawfully gamble at all, any online gambling service accepting Kyrgyz citizens operates outside the law. Lawmakers have repeatedly said such services are widely used. On 29 April 2026 deputy Tabyldy Muratbekov urged the Cabinet to ban or control online casinos, and in June 2026 deputy Saltanat Amanova called for a registry of online gambling operators, saying she had received letters from people “losing their money and property to online casinos” (CasinoBeats, 15 June 2026).
Blocking, meaning orders requiring internet providers or banks to cut off access to or payments for an unlawful service, is less developed than in neighbouring states. No published blocklist of gambling domains was found for this guide. In February 2026 the Ministry of Economy and Commerce proposed amendments under which websites, social-network accounts and messenger channels organising unlawful lotteries or binary-options schemes could be blocked, with providers restricting access within 24 hours of a court order, and banks required to block transactions linked to prohibited binary-options services (Kaktus.media, 19 February 2026). As of the last review, the adoption of that draft could not be confirmed.
Gambling advertising is prohibited. In November 2023 the Deputy Minister of Economy confirmed to Parliament that advertising is banned under the Law on Advertising (Kaktus.media, 15 November 2023).
Position of players
The legal position of players depends on citizenship. For citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic there is no lawful way to gamble at a licensed casino, bookmaker or online casino in the country, because Article 15 of the 2022 law excludes them as clients. The obligation falls on operators: the then Minister of Economy said that if citizens were found visiting a casino, the establishment’s licence would be revoked (Kaktus.media, 30 October 2023), and Kaktus.media reported in 2023 that a facial-recognition system was being developed to exclude citizens from casinos.
The criminal provisions reviewed for this guide are aimed at organisers of unlicensed gambling, not at participants. No provision making it an offence for an individual to place bets with an unlicensed or foreign online operator was found, and no recorded prosecutions or fines of players were identified.
Foreign nationals aged 21 or over may lawfully gamble at licensed establishments and with licensed online operators, subject to identification.
Taxation
Gambling operators pay a fixed tax set per gaming object rather than a percentage of gross gaming revenue (GGR, stakes less winnings paid). When the 2022 law was signed, the presidential press office described a monthly tax per casino gaming table of KGS 750,000 in 2022, KGS 1 million in 2023 and KGS 1.25 million from 2024 (24.kg, 30 June 2022). In March 2023 the Ministry of Economy and Commerce published for consultation a Cabinet resolution reducing the rates to KGS 450,000 per table in 2023 and KGS 600,000 from 2024, and KGS 10,000 and then KGS 15,000 per gaming machine or computer simulator (Kaktus.media, 24 March 2023). The final rates in force were not verified for this guide.
Receipts have grown steadily. According to Ministry of Finance figures reported by Focus Gaming News, gambling taxes totalled KGS 443 million (about US$5.07 million) in January to August 2026: KGS 422.7 million from casinos, KGS 13.9 million from gaming machines, KGS 4 million from bookmakers and KGS 2.8 million from online and virtual casinos (Focus Gaming News, 25 September 2026). In January and February 2026 receipts were KGS 90.4 million, 46.8% more than a year earlier (Akchabar, 14 April 2026).
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
Kyrgyzstan’s main protective measure is structural: the exclusion of its own citizens from all licensed gambling, combined with the minimum age of 21 for foreign clients and the exclusion of foreigners declared legally incapable. The 2022 law, as published by the regulator, contains no self-exclusion scheme or general responsible gambling duties of the kind found in European licensing systems. Other safeguards include:
- the location rules keeping gambling away from schools, universities, medical, religious and cultural institutions and housing;
- the confinement of gaming machines, bookmakers and totalisators to casino premises since 2023 and 2024;
- identification of players, and the routing of online gambling payments through a single designated bank, as announced in 2023;
- the ban on gambling advertising.
No national self-exclusion register or dedicated state-funded gambling helpline in Kyrgyzstan was identified during research. People affected by gambling harm can seek help from general health and addiction services. General guidance is available in our responsible gambling guide.
Recent and upcoming developments
- Casinos in state buildings (2024). In October 2024 the Cabinet proposed a bill to allow gambling establishments in state and municipal buildings and in property of enterprises with a state stake, chiefly to use state-owned hotels. Parliament passed it in all three readings on 30 October 2024 and it was signed on 4 November 2024 as Law No. 175 (Economist.kg, 12 November 2024).
- Regulations amended (2025–2026). Resolution No. 308 of 2 June 2025 amended Resolution No. 440; the regulator’s website carries updated texts of the regulations.
- Online gambling debate (2026). Deputies called in April and June 2026 for a ban on, or a registry of, online gambling operators targeting residents. Deputy Saltanat Amanova launched an initiative to amend the gambling law; its progress beyond committee discussion could not be confirmed at the time of review.
- Lottery and blocking amendments (2026). The February 2026 draft from the Ministry of Economy and Commerce would add criminal liability for repeat unlawful lottery organisers and introduce court-ordered blocking of websites and accounts. Its status should be rechecked.
Casino listings for players in Kyrgyzstan
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database and do not show that an operator is licensed in Kyrgyzstan. Licensed gambling, including online casinos, is open only to foreign nationals aged 21 or over, and citizens of Kyrgyzstan may not be customers of any gambling operator; the listings must not be read as an indication that playing is lawful. Licensing information is published by the Financial Market Regulation and Supervision Service.
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Sources and further reading
- Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic (text published by the Financial Market Regulation and Supervision Service), Law No. 50 of 30 June 2022 “On Gambling Activity in the Kyrgyz Republic”, consolidated text (accessed 7 October 2026).
- Spinform legal database, Law of the Kyrgyz Republic No. 191 “On the Prohibition of Gambling Activity in the Kyrgyz Republic” (accessed 7 October 2026).
- Spinform legal database, Law of the Kyrgyz Republic No. 201 of 11 August 2008 “On Gambling Activity in the Kyrgyz Republic” (accessed 7 October 2026).
- Financial Market Regulation and Supervision Service, Gambling activity (accessed 7 October 2026).
- Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic, Regulation on State Regulation of Gambling Activity in the Kyrgyz Republic (accessed 7 October 2026).
- Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic, Resolution No. 440 of 1 August 2022 on certain issues in the field of gambling activity (accessed 7 October 2026).
- Financial Market Regulation and Supervision Service, Cabinet of Ministers resolution adopted (Resolution No. 491) (2024).
- Financial Market Regulation and Supervision Service, Gambling activity: news (accessed 7 October 2026).
- 24.kg, Sadyr Japarov legalised casinos: law on gambling activity signed (2022).
- Current Time, President of Kyrgyzstan signs law legalising casinos (2022).
- 24.kg, Casinos to open only in Issyk-Kul region (2021).
- 24.kg, Members of Parliament approve bill on opening of casinos in first reading (2021).
- 24.kg, Sadyr Japarov calls protests against casinos black PR (2021).
- Kaktus.media, Government proposes to bring back casinos and gaming machines (2015).
- Economist.kg, CIP lounges at Issyk-Kul airport: is there a link to the Tamchy gaming zone? (2023).
- Kaktus.media, What is known and unknown about casinos in Kyrgyzstan: an overview (2023).
- OCCRP / Kloop, Company that opened Kyrgyzstan’s first casino linked to Japarov’s friend (2023).
- Kaktus.media, Up to 8 years for opening an underground casino: law signed (2023).
- Economist.kg, Kyrgyzstan tightens control over the gambling business (2024).
- Economist.kg, Kyrgyzstan allows gambling establishments in state buildings (2024).
- Focus Gaming News, Kyrgyzstan gambling taxes reach US$5m in eight months (2026).
- CasinoBeats, Kyrgyzstan lawmaker calls on government to create online casino registry (2026).
- Kaktus.media, Ministry of Economy proposes blocking bloggers’ accounts for organising draws (2026).
