“CivilNet.” The Volume of Gambling in Armenia Has Increased 53-Fold in 8 Years: The True Scale of Gambling Addiction Is Unknown

According to a study by CivilNet, the online gambling market in Armenia continues to expand rapidly. In 2017, the volume of internet betting was AMD 138.5 billion, while in 2025 it had already reached AMD 7.4 trillion. Over eight years, it increased by approximately 53 times. In the first eight months of 2026, the amount of betting reached AMD 5.4 trillion.

According to data from the State Revenue Committee, the gross income of gambling companies amounted to AMD 154.3 billion in 2025, increasing by 16.3 percent compared with the previous year. In the first eight months of 2026, it increased by another 22.8 percent, reaching AMD 113.8 billion.

State revenues are also increasing. In 2023, the companies “Digitain,” “SoftConstruct,” “Cabarko,” and “Good Soft” paid AMD 22.1 billion in taxes and duties to the state, while in 2025 they paid AMD 52.6 billion. Payments during the first eight months of 2026 amounted to AMD 48.6 billion. At the same time, the government has increased the state duty for the right to accept bets.

But what is happening to the gamblers? State bodies do not have an answer to this question. The Ministry of Health has not studied the prevalence of gambling addiction among the population. The number of people who applied to the National Center for Addiction Treatment was 76 in 2025 and 31 in the first nine months of 2026. These are merely patients who sought medical assistance and do not reflect the actual scale of the problem.

At the same time, as of October 1, 2026, 100,669 people had self-excluded from gambling. There are also procedures for blocking unlicensed foreign gambling websites and restrictions on the participation of state and community officials. Starting in January 2027, participation by people aged 70 and older is also expected to be prohibited.

However, there is no assessment of the effectiveness of these measures, nor is there any accounting of gamblers’ actual losses.

Pashinyan’s government meticulously counts the profits of the gambling business and the taxes collected from it, but does not even attempt to find out how much human tragedy is hidden behind these billions. For the authorities, the revenues of gambling companies have real value, while the fate of people whose lives are being destroyed by gambling addiction seems to interest no one. The state has become the accountant of tax revenues from the gambling business, ignoring its own citizens’ debts, broken families, and ruined lives.