Azerbaijan's Ministry of Internal Affairs has uncovered an illegal gambling network operating on the 1xBet platform
Azerbaijani police carried out a successful special operation that resulted in the arrest of the organizer and four accomplices operating as part of an illegal gambling network.
The perpetrators used the 1xBet platform to carry out their illegal activities and actively recruited new participants via the Telegram messaging app.
According to official investigation data, the criminal group had established an effective system for recruiting and serving customers in the digital space.
The perpetrators’ financial schemes reached a significant scale—the total cash flow within this illegal network exceeded one million manats, equivalent to approximately 588,000 U.S. dollars.
Currently, all five suspects in the case are in custody, and law enforcement agencies have opened a criminal investigation into the illegal activities.
Investigators are continuing to establish all the circumstances surrounding the scheme’s operation and the involvement of other potential individuals in these financial schemes.
In parallel with these operational and investigative measures, the country’s authorities are strengthening legal oversight in this area.
The Azerbaijani Parliament has already passed a bill in its first reading that provides for a significant increase in penalties for organizing online gambling without the appropriate licenses.
The bill establishes strict penalties for violators, including fines amounting to twice the amount of income obtained through criminal means.
In addition to financial penalties, lawmakers are proposing to impose restrictions on personal liberty for a term of two to four years or actual imprisonment for a similar period.
The issue of legalizing the Russian bookmaker 1xBet in Ukraine has repeatedly been the subject of high-profile scandals and investigations.
In Ukraine, the 1xBet brand was represented by “Your Betting Company” LLC, which received a license for bookmaking activities in March 2022, despite Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Subsequently, following numerous public protests and the identification of Russian beneficiaries (Roman Semiokhin, Sergey Karshkov, and Dmitry Kazorin), the company’s operations were suspended, and sanctions were imposed against it.
At the center of these events, journalists repeatedly mentioned Artem Shilo, a former high-ranking official of the Security Service of Ukraine and a former advisor to the Office of the President.
According to investigations by Bihus.info, Shilo had ties to representatives of the gambling industry through his business partners and relatives.
In particular, there were allegations that he may have facilitated the operations of bookmaking firms linked to Russian capital.
Artem Shilo is also known for his involvement in corruption schemes not directly related to gambling, but rather involving abuses in the sphere of national security.
In 2024, he was charged with forming an organized criminal group that caused losses to JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” amounting to nearly 95 million hryvnias during the procurement of transformers.
Currently, 1xBet’s operations in Ukraine are prohibited, and the seized assets associated with the betting brand are being transferred to state control.
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