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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The Podilskyi District Court of Kyiv 28 September denied a man’s claim to recover more than one million hryvnias lost at the online casino Pin-Up. The plaintiff insisted that the money should be recovered from the platform operator because, while playing, he was in a state of prolonged depressive disorder and could not critically assess his financial decisions.
As stated in the ruling published in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions, the man filed a lawsuit in March 2026 seeking consumer protection against the limited liability company "Ukr Game Technology." According to him, from 1 August 2023 to 28 April 2024 he played almost daily on the Pin-Up online platform, topping up his gaming account and placing bets.
During that period the plaintiff made more than 200 financial transactions at various times of day. At first he estimated his losses at 1 031 176 hryvnias, but after an additional reconciliation of bank statements he refined the calculation:
the total amount of funds deposited - 1 400 800 hryvnias;
the total amount of funds received - 379 624 hryvnias;
the difference the plaintiff sought to recover - 1 021 176 hryvnias.
The man argued that he topped up his account through the official Pin-Up website using payment methods offered by the operator, and that the defendant company listed its legal address on its resources as: Kyiv, Mykola Solovtsov Street, building 2, office 38/1. At the time he participated in the games, the platform presented itself as licensed under Ukrainian law.
As a separate argument, the plaintiff cited his health condition. He attached medical documents that, in his view, confirmed prolonged depressive and anxious-depressive disorders, and stated that he had received stimulating marketing offers — bonuses, free spins, and push notifications — which further encouraged him to play more.
Why the court rejected the player’s claims
In examining the case, the court found that neither the plaintiff nor his family members had ever applied to KRAIL, Playcity, or the court to add the man to the Register of persons restricted from access to gambling establishments and participation in gambling — the so-called register of problem gamblers. The court emphasized that this register had been in operation for more than two years at the time the plaintiff played on the platform, and the law provides several ways to restrict oneself from gambling — a personal application, an application by first-degree relatives, or a court decision.
The court also took a critical view of the medical documents submitted by the plaintiff, since they contained no diagnoses of gambling addiction and were dated in periods that did not coincide with the time of play stated in the claim — in the court’s view, therefore, they were not related to the circumstances of the case.
In addition, the court denied the plaintiff’s motion to appoint a comprehensive judicial psychological-psychiatric examination. Earlier, in May 2026 the court granted the man’s request to obtain from LLC "Ukr Game Technology" information about all his bets, the duration of gaming sessions, and deposit and withdrawal operations. However, the defendant’s representative reported that the company had effectively ceased operating as an organizer of gambling since May 2024, and the requested data are stored not with the company but with the financial company "Diamond Pay," which handles players’ payments.
In the court’s response, the representative of LLC "Ukr Game Technology" also described a criminal proceeding against the company’s former director, who on 10 July 2025 the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv issued a verdict, and the NSDC sanctions of 25 May 2025 introduced by presidential decree No.344/2025. The company’s license to organize online casino gambling, issued back in April 2021, was terminated by the State Agency Playcity by decision of 3 June 2025.
What the court decided
After reviewing the case materials, the court concluded that the asserted claims were based on assumptions and were not supported by proper evidence. In the operative part of the ruling, the court decided:
to dismiss the man’s lawsuit against LLC "Ukr Game Technology" for consumer protection;
court costs are not to be reimbursed by the defendant due to the claim’s dismissal.
The decision may be appealed to the Kyiv Court of Appeal within thirty days from the date it was announced.
Previously, Informator wrote that, according to a YouControl study, online casinos in Ukraine earned 9 months of 2025 45,5 billion hryvnias, and among the owners of licensed platforms are companies with Cypriot, American, and Georgian registration of beneficiaries. We also reported that the State Agency Playcity offers players to take a test for gambling addiction and receive help if participation in gambling becomes a problem.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Киянин програв у Pin-Up понад мільйон гривень і зажадав повернення грошей через депресію - що вирішив суд". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Informator.
