Armenia Sets Telecoms Block of Unlicensed Gambling Sites for 2027

Armenia will tighten state oversight of online gaming by blocking websites operated by unlicensed gambling companies through telecommunications operators, the State Revenue Committee said on September 7, 2026, announcing amendments that take effect in February 2027.

The State Revenue Committee (SRC) said the amendments to the Law On Regulation of Gaming Activities and related laws will introduce new regulations from February 8, 2027, Armenpress reported. The changes revise existing mechanisms for blocking websites offering online gambling and lottery services operated by companies without Armenian licences.

Under the new regulations, the technical blocking of such websites will be improved by restricting access to them through telecommunications operators. The spread of advertisements by companies without Armenian licences will also be restricted.

Why the Committee Is Acting

The SRC said the amendments are needed because of the widespread availability of gaming services and advertising offered by foreign companies without Armenian licences in the country’s online space amid the development of digital technologies.

The committee emphasized that the new regulations do not restrict legal gaming activities. It said the measures are aimed solely at improving the effectiveness of the licensing system, protecting the licensed gaming market and ensuring fair competition by preventing risks in the sector.

A Framework Rebuilt Since 2024

The announcement extends a legislative programme that has been under way for more than two years. The National Assembly debated the main package of draft laws on the Regulation of Gaming Activities and attached laws in June 2024, with SRC Chairman Rustam Badasyan presenting what the parliament described as an initiative aimed at the comprehensive regulation of the gaming sector.

A further stage followed in 2026. On February 10, 2026, the National Assembly debated amendments to the same law setting procedural guarantees for the competition to select a private gambling regulation operator, according to the parliament’s record of the sitting. Deputy SRC Chairman Rafayel Gevorgyan told deputies the changes clarify when a participant can appeal the competition’s results and establish clear deadlines for appeals, while an addendum to the civil procedure rules would exclude court measures that could suspend the competition process.

Gevorgyan described the monitoring architecture the operator system is built around. “A digital infrastructure is being created, where each bet will be registered in real time, and the State Revenue Committee will have relevant information,” he told the chamber, adding that the competition procedure had launched the previous year and was then in its second stage.

Blocking Gaps Flagged in Parliament

The February sitting also addressed website blocking directly. Babken Tunyan, deputy chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, raised the blocking of access to and advertising of unregistered gambling websites, noting that unregistered and dubious sites remained available. He said the issue raises not only financial but also security and social problems, and that urgent steps should be taken.

Responding in his concluding speech, Gevorgyan said legislative amendments were planned that would allow more effective application of the restrictions already in law, and that a protection system would be established to prevent an organisation from selling its products unhindered on the internet. The regulations announced by the SRC this week set that blocking revision to begin on February 8, 2027.

The Operator Tender

The operator competition itself has been running under a formal tender procedure documented by the SRC. An inter-agency tender commission, established by a prime ministerial decree of July 28, 2025, published its request for qualification on October 16, 2025, stating that the winner would be obliged to establish a new company in Armenia with which the SRC, as supervisory authority, would sign a 15-year contract, financed through the resources of organisations operating in the sector.

The tender documents set out the functions reserved to the operator under the law: issuing, extending and terminating operating certificates for gambling products; connecting gambling products to a monitoring centre and providing the supervisory authority with remote access to transaction data; recommending responsible and fair play rules and product standards; concluding service agreements with organisers; and conducting overall market monitoring, including the collection and analysis of data on gaming tokens, winnings, products and events.

The commission’s objective in running the tender, the October announcement stated, was to strengthen the supervisory system newly introduced for the gambling sector and ensure its effective functioning. Qualification bids closed on November 25, 2025. The commission then published its request-for-proposal stage announcement on April 13, 2026, setting a bid submission deadline of June 12, 2026, with bid envelopes opened at a commission session on June 15, 2026.

The blocking regulations announced on September 7 are scheduled to enter force on February 8, 2027, applying to websites offering online gambling and lottery services operated by companies without Armenian licences.