Currently, there is a mad dash by lawmakers in Kazakhstan to pass a new bill that would see a tighter control over the betting industry by a shady third-party regulator.
Lawmakers are carrying this new legislation under the banner of a public health bill. It plans to introduce many measures. Nonetheless, the third-party Unified Accounting System or the regulator is the most interesting and worrying part of this new law. This entity would regulate the developing fintech industry. The legislation will also grant it decisive and overwhelming control over the market and payment systems. This could also determine which companies can participate in the market.
Politicians have thrown out the law after previously accepting bribes to bring in this regulator. The government is hoping no one will notice the threat it has to the young fintech industry of Kazakhstan.
The Kazakh government is reintroducing the law. It has now passed its second reading in Parliament. This will bring in a regulator with sweeping powers over this industry. This is not a new move by the government of Kazakh. Its first attempt to get the regulator through was in January 2020. Back then, the regulator was referred to as the Betting Account Centre (BAC). An opaque private Kazakh company, Exirius LLP, and the Kazakh payment processing company, PayBox, won a previous tender to establish and manage all the functions of the BAC.
In 2021, the proposed introduction was paused. During that time, officials fired Saken Musaybekov, the Kazakh vice minister of culture, for accepting bribes from pro-BAC lobbyists. In 2019, after holding a press conference against the introduction of the BAC, the government arrested the owners of Olimp, an independent bookmaking company, labeling them as members of organized crime syndicates.The case is still ongoing.
