At the end of September, the cyber police issued a statement that its employees in Kiev had stopped the work of an IT company that was developing a turnkey online casino.
And although the security forces did not say which company they were talking about, it soon became known that they came to the Kiev office of Soft2bet with searches, which positions itself as a European IT company in the field of online entertainment and develops a turnkey online casino on its own. engine. Soft2bet offices are located in Bulgaria, Serbia, Portugal, as well as in Cyprus and Malta. Recently, by the way, she celebrated four years since its inception.
The press service of the cyber police said that 80 employees worked in the office of the company, and the minimum package of services cost $20,000. For an additional $100,000, the company set up Internet marketing to promote the resource online and attract new users. It is noted that the monthly income of the company was more than $ 500 thousand.
What is the reason for closing the office and searches is not entirely clear. After all, the company itself seems to be not, in fact, an online casino operator, but only develops software for them. In addition, the activity of online casinos in Ukraine is allowed: in August 2020, the law “On State Regulation of Organizing and Conducting Gambling” came into force, which legalizes and regulates their activities.
Soft2bet itself also does not explain or comment on the searches in the Kiev office and the criminal case under Article 203-2 (Illegal activity in organizing or conducting gambling, lotteries) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Violation of this article, according to the current Ukrainian legislation, is punishable by a fine of 10,000 to 40,000 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens with confiscation of gaming equipment.
Perhaps, Soft2bet is silent about the unfortunate incident also because its representative office does not officially exist in Kiev – the presence of the Kiev office is not mentioned on the company’s website. That is, she conducted her activities here illegally. And now about the troubles in the company itself, which advertises itself as absolutely “legal and successful”, of course, it is better to keep silent, pretending that nothing happened.
The fact that the “lack” of an office in Kiev did not prevent Soft2bet from recruiting employees there is also not commented on. And the fact that employees were still recruited is evidenced by announcements on the Internet: for example, 13 vacancies at Soft2bet were published on the DOU website alone. From the same announcement, it was clear that the office of online casino developers was located on the street. Vasilkovskaya, 14-B in the business center Stend.
However, this information is no longer available.
The cyber police stated that “that the members of the criminal group created a company allegedly for the development of web resources and online games in Ukraine. Instead, they provided services for the creation, technical support and customer service of online casinos. Among the opportunities that this organization provided was also the development of gaming platforms that were used for gambling.”
Specialists of the Kiev cyber police have identified over 20 online casinos, with an audience of half a million players, in the development of which this company is involved. The names of the sites are not disclosed by the cyber police, but, presumably, among them were, at a minimum, the Malina Casino, YoYo Casino and Buran Casino online casinos, as well as the 7 Stars Partners (7SP) affiliate program.
What is the reason for the office closure and the criminal case against Soft2bet is not entirely clear. The official version of the police is not entirely satisfactory, since, we repeat, the activity of such establishments in Ukraine has been allowed since August, that is, at least a month before the searches at Soft2bet. In addition, this is not the first case of persecution of online casinos in Ukraine this year: in January, the cyber police came with searches to Zlodei Advertising. Then the company was also accused of designing, supporting and promoting online casinos. And in February, the cyber police exposed the organizers of another online casino with a monthly income of $1 million. But this happened before the adoption of a law allowing such activities and was quite logical.
Regarding the criminal case against Soft2bet, it can be assumed that, although such activities are allowed in Ukraine, the company simply decided not to bother with obtaining the appropriate permits and licenses, which are very expensive. And we thought that since the main activity is carried out online, you can do without them.
Indeed, in this case, the money saved is by no means small: a license for an online casino costs 6.5 thousand minimum wages – 30.7 million hryvnias. That is more than a million dollars. For that kind of money, you can take a risk.
But in an attempt to save money, cunning businessmen, it seems, did not take into account Ukrainian realities – it is no secret to anyone that underground casinos and slot machine halls, which until recently bloomed in a riotous color in our country, either belonged to or were covered by structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. And after they managed to drive them into the deep underground, many police officers were left without significant earnings. Existing online offices cannot compensate for these “losses” – there are too many applicants for too few offices. Plus, existing online casinos are also not interested in competitors. So the version is very plausible that the Soft2bet office was simply “leaked” by competitors to their patrons. And Soft2bet either did not understand that they had to pay for their activities, or the appetites of the “patrons” who came to them turned out to be exorbitant.
In addition, we should not forget about the recent sale of the Dnepr Hotel in the center of Kiev. It was bought this summer and there are persistent rumors that the hotel will be converted into a casino. There are also no less persistent rumors linking buyers with the highest ranks of the current government. If so, then who needs competitors? And the audience of Soft2bet players, we recall, was half a million players. So it is better to remove potential competitors from the market.
But this, albeit very plausible, is still guesswork, because there is no exact information, although more than two months have passed since the searches of the Soft2bet office. As there is no information about what will happen to the Ukrainian staff of the Kiev branch of Soft2bet. Here, too, we are on a slippery slope of guesswork, but we can predict with almost one hundred percent certainty: they will solve their problems with the police themselves. For a simple reason – there is no official representative office of Soft2bet in Ukraine. And here you are, too. Has anyone entered into employment contracts? Here you go. This should once again serve as a reminder to those who are looking for easy money in the gaming industry – and not only to the players, but also to its employees. But it won’t work.
The defendants in the criminal case can console themselves with the words of their boss Uri Polyavich, co-founder of Soft2bet.
It was not for nothing that he said, celebrating the fourth anniversary of the creation of his company, that “Soft2bet employees, whether they be programmers, analysts, support agents, quality control managers or anyone else, are considered by the company as heroes.” We hope that these words of his will serve as a consolation to them on their long journey through the offices of investigators and courts.
In the meantime, the criminal case against Soft2bet is unwinding, and competitors are also unwinding. A Google search for “Ukrainian online casino” gives at least 55 links to active online resources. And it is not a fact that one day Soft2bet will not appear among these links – after all, Ukraine is a country of unique opportunities. There would be money and understanding with whom to share.