Armenia’s Young iGaming Workers: Opportunities and Ethical Considerations

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In Armenia, meeting a young professional who works in iGaming is commonplace—the industry has boomed dramatically in recent years. Nearly one-third of vacancies on the country’s major job boards are iGaming-related. Scroll through the listings and the scale becomes apparent. During just the first week of August 2025, one leading iGaming company advertised 23 full pages of open positions. 

Many young Armenian professionals are now beginning their careers in iGaming companies, drawn by promises of tech advancement, opportunities and financial rewards. Yet beneath this glossy exterior lies a troubling reality rarely discussed. Armenia’s annual gambling turnover reached $18 billion last year, exceeding its entire national debt (around $13.8 billion). 

While this boom has created opportunities, it has also fueled demand for young workers, attracting more Armenians into the industry and transforming the labor market. As iGaming expands, a critical question emerges: Is this becoming the default career path for a generation, and what are the consequences?

iGaming is an umbrella term used for online gambling and betting. It includes virtual casinos, online sports betting, poker, and other internet-based money games. The industry includes companies that develop the websites, apps, and systems enabling these games. Armenia currently hosts around 30 iGaming companies, along with numerous tech and marketing firms that fuel their growth.

Target, Hire, Train, Repeat

A quick online search is often the first step in any job hunt. According to WiFi Talents, which provides global market-data research, 77% of iGaming companies use social media platforms to attract talent. And Armenian iGaming companies are no exception. 

Among the most prominent companies in the country, one stands out for its aggressive promotion of “game presenter” and “shuffler” positions, specifically targeting young workers. Almost anyone active on Armenian social media has encountered these ads, and their frequency is impossible to ignore. The company operates its Instagram account under the username @firstjob_am, deliberately appealing to young job seekers—a strategy that resonates for Gen-Z. 

Their Instagram page features hundreds of posts emphasizing easy hiring processes and attractive perks: slogans like “learn, work, develop,” bonuses up to 150,000 AMD ($400), paid training, and amenities such as a library and yoga space for post-shift relaxation. While these benefits may surpass other local job offers, the overwhelming number of ads—from Instagram to Yerevan metro stations—promising iPhones and Dubai vacations to new team members feels more like an aggressive pursuit of young workers than traditional recruitment. At least three other similar companies in Armenia have posted comparable offers on Instagram.

Targeted hiring often begins with targeted marketing. In Armenia’s emerging influencer scene, there’s never a shortage of individuals willing to promote iGaming recruitment campaigns. Recently, over ten young influencers created “day in the life of a game presenter” videos for at least three different iGaming companies hiring for “game presenters” or “shufflers”. These videos have gained tremendous traction online—more than 300 posts collectively amassing over 3 million views.* Given this aggressive recruitment effort, these companies likely pay influencers premium rates to increase their visibility among young audiences. The influencers’ involvement extends beyond Instagram; they participate in career fairs, announce their appearances, and encourage followers to visit iGaming company booths. Is this lifestyle content or disguised recruitment? Through these activities, influencers become integral to the companies’ promotional machinery. While gambling advertisements, including those on online platforms, are banned in Armenia, job advertisements for online gambling companies remain unrestricted. Consequently, these recruitment campaigns appear not only online and at career fairs but also on banners in central Yerevan metro stations, areas frequently traversed by university students.

Expectation vs Reality

In Armenia, iGaming companies have become a common entry point for young professionals due to straightforward hiring processes, competitive salaries, and modern offices. Additional benefits, including medical insurance and flexible scheduling options, make these positions particularly appealing to students.

However, many applicants aren’t informed during recruitment or orientation that their teams provide operational and software services exclusively for betting companies. Violetta,* a former customer service trainer in iGaming, joined, believing she was entering the tech sector. She only later discovered that her employer was connected to a company operating several online gambling platforms in Armenia. After less than a year, she resigned, realizing she was part of a system enabling addiction. “Even though my role was small, I was still taking part in something that was destroying thousands of families in Armenia,” she explains. Violetta describes a challenging work environment with frequent calls from angry, addicted players using profanity and making demands she couldn’t address. Her initial hope of developing communication skills in a tech company quickly dissolved as she faced a very different reality than expected.

Violetta, familiar with her company’s gaming department, recalled workers as young as 15 and 16 who were likely still in high school. After brief training, they were put straight to work. For many young people with limited job prospects, this offered quick entry into a booming industry.

Lilit, a former data scientist at one of Armenia’s largest iGaming companies, recalls being told during recruitment that the firm provided software development and operational solutions across various sectors. Though she knew some work related to online gaming, she did not initially take this aspect too seriously. As a university student with less than a year of working experience, she was intrigued by the opportunity at a tech company. She became fascinated by the mechanics of iGaming platforms. “It is like working for the FBI,” she says, describing her insider knowledge of backend systems, decision-making processes, and user engagement strategies.

iGaming companies often market their positions to young professionals as “tech company” jobs. These firms regularly appear at Yerevan’s career fairs. At the 2023 Yerevan State University fair, one booth displayed a banner reading “Why Join Us?” while staff engaged attendees with quizzes about hiring processes and benefits––but not about the industry itself. To fresh graduates, these opportunities sound promising. Yet consider spending four years on rigorous academic work only to have iGaming companies at your university career fair promoting entry-level “shuffler” positions as promising career starts. Universities allowing these companies to market directly to recent graduates adds another troubling dimension to the situation.

These companies are always hiring, with constant demand for new talent. However, as former employees reveal, many don’t stay long unless they advance to senior positions. For some, like Violetta and Lilit, the decision to leave was partly moral—they found it difficult to reconcile good paychecks with the industry’s ethical concerns. Many join without intending to build long-term careers, using iGaming jobs as temporary bridges while searching for something better. 

The perks make these positions attractive: salaries that are high by local standards, health insurance, and business trips to glamorous betting conferences in London, Rio de Janeiro, Mallorca, and Dubai. These benefits were major draws for the former employees. While they might have found other well-paying jobs elsewhere, the combination of financial security, medical coverage, and flexibility—especially while studying or exploring other fields—made these offers too tempting to decline.

Armenia’s Labor Market Impact

iGaming jobs are reshaping the labor market in ways that extend far beyond individual careers. As talent gravitates toward the sector, human capital quietly shifts away from areas critical to the country’s long-term development. The concentration of high-paying positions can general financial stability for some, yet also widen disparities for those left in lower-wage or stagnant fields. What appears dynamic on the surface, may, over time, deepen social divides.

In Armenia’s undiversified economy, new jobs are undeniably valuable. iGaming companies offer training and contribute to growth, though the scale and depth of these benefits remain limited. Many, like Violetta and Lilit, want to contribute meaningfully to Armenia’s figure. The sector highlights stark contrasts: traditional fields—health, defense, education, manufacturing—struggle to compete with the wages and conditions iGaming can offer. While some young professionals remain committed to these vital roles, the imbalance raises difficult questions about sustainability, ethics, and the kind of development Armenia should prioritize.

Final Thoughts

While iGaming companies promote themselves as engines of tech innovation and economic growth, their broader social impact is far less clear. In Armenia’s limited, undiversified job market, many young professionals enter the sector by default rather than deliberate choice. Individually, each may seem like a minor player in the betting industry, but collectively their work sustains a system that risks fueling widespread gambling addiction. As such cases rise, what began as a labor market trend increasingly evolves into a structural problem, redirecting valuable human capital away from sectors vital to Armenia’s long-term development.

Note to readers: The names in this article have been changed to protect the privacy of those interviewed.

*The numbers are based on the author’s own calculations. They represent the total views of videos promoting careers in iGaming posted by five high-follower influencers on Instagram and TikTok.

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