Kostanay bloggers hook citizens on online games, promising easy money

They are not shy about making money on gullible social media users. Some even make a direct profit from every baited

I made it myself and I will help you!

Since the end of February, Anastasia Ostrovskaya, a well-known Instagram blogger in Kostanay, has actively begun to warm up and intrigue the audience with her impressive earnings. The Aviator online game, or in simple words, an online casino, turned out to be a gold mine. The blogger noted that she would share her strategy with which you can definitely raise money, but there are some conditions.

- You now need to register using the link that I will leave below. After that, replenish the balance by 1000 tenge and write to me in a personal to get my strategy,” Ostrovskaya says beautifully in training videos on her telegram channel.

The link that the girl offered to follow turned out to be a referral link, that is, it allowed tracking the number of clicks from this particular game partner. For attracting new players, the Kostanay blogger made a profit. It is noteworthy that recently Anastasia, who earned two million from her subscribers, suddenly deleted all references to Aviator from her Telegram channel. Ostrovskaya wrote that she was preparing something more interesting for her subscribers: “We will earn even more than before!”.

A week ago, the same Aviator was advertised by another local Instagram blogger, Daria Krun. She posted a link to the telegram channel of a girl who encourages people to play in the casino. The author of the page is a certain Veronica. The earnings scheme is the same: top up your balance by 1000 tenge, follow the link, get a strategy, play and get rich.

What is the meaning of the game? Make bets and hit the stop in time before the “airplane” has flown away. You never know when this will happen, but greed makes you wait until the last minute so that the coefficient, which rises every second, multiplies the bet. I did not have time to stop the game in time - I lost money.

For the purposes of the experiment, we also tried to play Aviator, but first with a demo account in order to practice: we received a certain amount of dollars, made minimum bets and seemed to increase our money. Well, it's time to play for real: 1000 tenge to the account and go. A bet of 30 and 40 tenge sometimes gave a win of 100 and 200 tenge. Then the amount of bets increased, but the “airplane” treacherously flew away, taking with it the chance to win. At the end of the game, we had about 500 tenge left on our account, but we could not withdraw them: the minimum withdrawal amount is 3000 tenge.

Can you make money at an online casino? Unlikely. To do this, you need to sit in front of the monitor for hours and follow the “airplane”. Shameful occupation for adults. Even if you are lucky once, you will lose ten more times.

What does the law say?

It is fair to say that bloggers advertise online casinos, but why are slot machines with the same games in our stores? Why is the OLIMPBET bookmaker a sponsor of the championships? Let's go in order.

Kazakhstan has laws “On gambling business” and “On lotteries and lottery activities”. If we talk about the first, it says: on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, casinos, slot machine cash desks, bookmakers and sweepstakes (games for money on the run and horse races - ed.) can only be placed in the Almaty region on the coast of the Kapshagay reservoir and in Burabay district of Akmola region. Opening in other places is prohibited.

At the same time, all these types of activities as such are not prohibited if the companies are licensed, properly registered and paying taxes. These laws were just adopted in order to bring all gambling under control and bring them out of the shadows. It also plays into the hands of gamers: they can go to court to protect their rights.

Lotomatic slot machines are subject to the Law “On Lotteries and Lottery Activities”. At first glance, the games that this operator offers you are pure casino water. But according to the law, it's a lottery. Everything is legal. In 2017, Satti Zhuldyz JSC appeared on the market of Kazakhstan - the first and only lottery operator in the country. It is they who own the blue-and-yellow slot machines of the Lotomatic brand. How are they different from other, illegal ones?

To put it simply, legal lottery terminals are equipped with cash registers, the models of which are included in the state register in accordance with the Tax Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The operator claims that these devices are configured in such a way that they will not allow the client to play to the last pants, they have a threshold for winning and losing. Despite the fact that gambling has the same mechanics, legal machines will be more honest with you.

“All legal vending machines have a QR code in the left corner, it leads to a website where it will be shown whether this device is certified,” explained “NK” in the Department of Economic Investigation in Kostanay region.

The Lotomatic website says that “the conditions of the instant lottery have been developed in accordance with international principles, so participants are constantly informed about the proportionality of the costs of participating in the lottery and the chances of winning, and are asked to make informed decisions.” The same warnings pop up when you start the game on the machine.

– And, of course, only adult Kazakhstanis can participate in lottery draws through Lotomatic. The age of the participant is determined upon acceptance of the user agreement and verification of the IIN, - note in Satti Zhuldyz JSC.

We also played one of the Lotomatic lotteries: deposited 500 tenge, chose a game, clicked on start... and received 450 tenge back. That is, in fact, they did not win, but only paid the minimum amount to the operator for the opportunity to play. Is it worth it to hope that you will break the big jackpot?

The process of receiving a win is not easy: an SMS arrives with an individual code and a telephone number of the payout center. We couldn't get through there for half a day. Finally, the girl picked up the phone and asked to send the SMS text to her in WhatsApp, and then transferred these 450 tenge to the phone number.

The Department of Economic Investigation noted that if slot machines or a gambling establishment operate with permission and have licenses, then there are no questions for them, but online casinos are prohibited in Kazakhstan. Their sites are blocked by the police together with the Ministry of Information and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Judging by how actively various “Aviators” work for us, the blocking process clearly loses in speed to such casinos.

As for the propaganda of these very sites, according to Art. 13 p.1-3 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Advertising", it is prohibited.

– If a blogger advertises a lottery placed by a lottery operator under an agency contract, then his actions are quite legal, but if a blogger advertises a lottery that is not related to the operator, then liability arises under Art. 455 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Kazakhstan, - stresses the lawyer Damir Khamitov. - Anyone who advertises a lottery must understand that if advertising is carried out without an operator, then it is illegal.

Ludomania and its consequences

In Kostanay region, according to the Department of Economic Investigation, in 2020 and 2021, two facts of organizing illegal gambling were revealed. Since the beginning of 2022, there is already one fact.

Of the loudest: in February 2021, an underground casino was covered in one of the sports bars in Kostanay, and in 2020, two gambling clubs were discovered at once, where guests chipped in 10 thousand tenge and played poker. Responsibility in this case threatens not only the organizers, but also the participants.

What is the danger of gambling or betting? It is worth remembering at least the fate of the Zhitikarinsky banker Myrzabai Shalbaev, who in 2020 stole 205 thousand euros from the accounts of Eurasian Bank clients. The money was needed to win back on bets in a bookmaker's office ... Such a hobby ended for Shalbaev with 8 years in prison.

Psychiatrist-narcologist Igor Vasilenko advises everyone who has noticed a similar craving for gambling and easy money in their relatives or friends to immediately stop this business. Otherwise, it can lead to gambling addiction - a pathological craving for games.

- When a person enjoys the game, addiction is formed. The harder it is, the deeper the changes: dependence begins to manifest itself not only in behavior, but also on a psychological, and subsequently even on a physical level, Vasilenko emphasizes. - The gambling state for such people becomes comfortable, so they always strive to return to it. When the excitement is not enough, the gambler can develop an unpleasant withdrawal syndrome. Correcting this condition is difficult. It all depends on the severity, how sick the person is.

Here is a story from the practice of a narcologist: a man moved from the district to the city, worked a lot. One day, on the way home, I went to a bookmaker's office and found out that you can "easily" make money here. Thus began the story of the collapse with a sad outcome: the apartment in the area was sold, debts for 8 million, the family remained on the street.

Raising easy money is a trick that people always fall for. That is our nature. Unfortunately, not only teenagers, but also adults fall for the bait of excitement. Neither higher education nor upbringing saves here. Gamers think that they can cheat the system and develop their own winning strategy, but this is a delusion.