First Gambling Operators Connect to SOMS: How This Changes Ukraine’s Gaming Market
Connecting Ukrainian gambling operators to the State Online Monitoring System (SOMS) promotes gaming industry transparency, increases tax control efficiency, and minimizes risks of tax evasion.
Kyiv Post
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The connection of Ukrainian gambling operators to the State Online Monitoring System (SOMS) has begun – this changes the approach to accounting in the industry and the interaction between business and the government.
For years, the gambling market in Ukraine lived in the logic of “traditional” reporting for past periods – post factum. Data was collected manually, with delays, and there was always room for human or technical error or manipulation.
The launch of the State Online Monitoring System (SOMS) changes this – accounting becomes a continuous process. The state receives data on the activities of operators daily and sees the real dynamics of the market in real time.
This is critically important for Ukraine, as it allows for market transparency, increases the efficiency of tax control, and minimizes the risks of tax evasion. Furthermore, it creates a basis for making informed regulatory decisions thanks to the data collected by the system.
How SOMS works – real-time data
Every action by a player and an operator no longer remains inside the company’s internal accounting systems. It turns into a separate event, which is transmitted to the state system via API immediately after completion.
This means that state control over the market actually begins to be exercised in real time. This is not about controlling clicks or user actions, but about recording operations that have already been completed. SOMS does not track the moment of a button press or a bank debit. The system receives confirmation from the casino that a bet has been accepted, and this fact becomes the accounting point.
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This is a fundamentally new approach to collecting data on the activities of gambling operators. The state does not interfere in the internal logic of the product or interaction with the client. But every confirmed operation becomes part of a single data stream.
How data accuracy is ensured in the SOMS
The second important change in accounting is data immutability. Once a transaction has been transmitted to the system, it cannot simply be rewritten. Every operation has a unique identifier, and the system operates according to ACID principles [atomicity (“all or nothing”), consistency, integrity, durability – State tax service requirements governing standard database transaction properties used to ensure every transaction is processed reliably and accurately. – Ed.] – this guarantees data integrity and consistency. We have also implemented solutions to avoid data duplication due to technical errors or the human factor – it is now almost impossible to allow this.
If an error occurs, it is not erased – a new corrective event is created. This is how a full history is formed, showing not only the result but also all changes.
Simultaneously, the SOMS solves another critical problem – the risk of data loss.
Even in the event of a technical failure, nothing disappears. If the connection with the SOMS is temporarily absent, the operator accumulates transactions and transmits them later. If the same operation is sent repeatedly, it is not duplicated thanks to a unique identifier.
In practice, this means that accounting no longer depends on the stability of a single channel or the human factor. Data is either already in the system or is guaranteed to get there.
Separately, I will explain how the tax base is formed. It is no longer the result of manual calculation. The system automatically collects three types of events: accepted bets, paid winnings, and returned funds. Based on these, the State Tax Service calculates GGR – gross gaming revenue, which is used for business taxation, as well as taxes on players’ winnings – PIT (Personal Income Tax) and military tax.
This eliminates the main problem of the old model – the gap between operational data and financial reports. Now it is one and the same array of information.
How SOMS creates tangible changes for business
Another change is technical, but no less important. Accounting becomes part of the IT architecture. Each operator must integrate via API, transmit data in a standardized format, and ensure its continuous submission.
In fact, instead of financial tables, a constant stream of structured messages appears. This increases the requirements for infrastructure, but at the same time reduces the influence of the human factor and removes the “manual” transmission of information about operations.
The system is already designed with a load margin for the coming years. It is capable of processing up to 10,000 transactions per second, which covers the peak loads of the market with a margin and allows for scaling along with its growth. Of course, the potential can always be increased – this was also envisaged at the development stage.
In fact, SOMS forms a new standard for the gambling market, where data becomes the basis for both state control and regulatory decisions. This is a transition to a transparent, synchronized, and data-driven model, in which the human factor is minimized and the processes of business-state interaction are digitized.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Kyiv Post.
