The article deals with the issues of establishing the direct object of illegal organization and conduct ofgambling. In the course of the study, the authors answer the following questions: does the illegal organizationand conduct of gambling belong to crimes in the sphere of economic activity, or should responsibility for such acts be established in another Chapter of the criminal law — 25 (“Crimes against public health and publicmorality”); expediency of allocation of additional optional objects of a crime for the purpose of exclusion ofcompetition of criminal-legal norms and double qualification of the act; validity of criminalization of acts,responsibility for which was established by the Federal law of 29.07.2018 No. 227-FZ. The following researchmethods are used: comparative legal method, method of generalization, systematization, and analysis ofstatistical information. According to the results of the study, the authors came to the conclusion that thecrime in question is related to the economic and the need for partial decriminalization of the act.