Online Casino (online casino)

2024

FTS signed a contract for the development of an IT control system for online casinos

The Federal Tax Service (FTS) of Russia has signed a contract worth ₽63 million to strengthen control over the activities of online casinos. Information about this appeared on the public procurement portal in September 2024. Read more here.

President of Ukraine forbade soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to play online casinos

On April 20, 2024, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree introducing a ban on access to online casinos for the military. In addition, the document provides for the introduction of a special system for online monitoring and blocking of illegal sites.

The decree is aimed at "strengthening measures to counter the negative consequences of the functioning of gambling on the Internet." The country introduces a restriction on all types of gambling advertising, in particular, using electronic communications, symbols of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and other military formations, as well as a restriction on the distribution of relevant contextual material. The document provides for a national awareness-raising campaign on the dangers of gambling and gambling addiction, indicating the contacts of institutions providing assistance to persons with such addiction.

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Bloomberg

Online casino organizers are prohibited from registering multiple accounts for one player. Such sites are obliged to set a limit for continuous participation in gambling per day for each account and enter mandatory breaks. In addition, the maximum allowed time to participate in games per week must be set.

Online casino operators must set the player's spending limit before starting the game for a certain period (day, week, month) - this restriction cannot be changed more than once a month.

Illegal resources that provide access to gambling will be blocked. Within three months, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine should adopt a standard for the treatment of severe gambling addiction and conduct training for health workers in order to timely identify its signs. At the same time, the Ministry of Social Policy should adopt a standard for the provision of services for the socio-psychological rehabilitation of persons with gambling addiction.^[1]

2022: MFI scheme helped to withdraw more than 2 billion rubles to online casinos

Microfinance organizations have come up with a scheme to bypass the ban on settlements from online casinos, which made it possible to withdraw more than 2 billion rubles into shadow circulation, said Galina Bobrysheva, deputy director of Rosfinmonitoring, in November 2022.

According to her, the actions of Rosfinmonitoring to track such operations allowed the Central Bank to block access to the financial market of about 30 MFIs.

"This year alone, banks with a typology identifier received about 80 thousand operations for a total of 27 billion rubles. One of the latest, fresh examples of the effective use of additionally marked information is the suppression of the activities of microfinance organizations to cover up settlements with online casinos, which, as you know, are prohibited as participants in the gambling business in the Russian Federation. The volume of funds withdrawn to the shadow turnover under this scheme exceeded 2 billion rubles, and the Bank of Russia promptly stopped the access of about 30 MFIs to the financial market, "Bobrysheva said.

2021

Za­konop­ro­ekt on blocking sites for transferring money to online casinos has been adopted in per­vom chte­nii

On April 26, 2021 it became known that the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the first reading the bill which provides extrajudicial blocking of the websites via which money in favor of illegal online casinos and lotteries is transferred. Under action of the document banks, payment service providers, telecom operators and also Russian Post get.

The bill proposes to amend articles of federal law No. 244-FZ "On state regulation of activities for organizing and conducting gambling and on amending certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation" and articles of federal law No. 138-FZ "On lotteries." The document provides for the restriction of transfers on the instructions of individuals in favor of the organizers of illegal activities to organize and conduct lotteries and gambling.

The bill was initiated by the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy Sergei Zhigarev and the head of the Committee on Information Policy Alexander Khinshtein.

If the document passes the Duma and the Federation Council, the Federal Tax Service (FTS) will be able to initiate extrajudicial blocking of such sites, and all banks and payment systems that operate in Russia, as well as telecom operators and Russian Post, will be required to block money transfers from individuals in favor of organizations included in the corresponding register of the Federal Tax Service. In case of failure to comply with such requirements, the bill provides for blocking the resources of payment organizations themselves. The Federal Tax Service will have the right to send information to the Bank of Russia about detected cases of online transfers by Russian and foreign banks in favor of persons from the register.

"The territory of the Russian Federation shall be recognized as the place of activities for conducting lotteries and gambling using the Internet, as well as means of communication, if at least one of the following conditions is fulfilled: the place of residence of the lottery participant or gambling is located on the territory of the Russian Federation; the location of the bank in which the account of the lottery or gambling participant is opened, used by him when paying for participation in the lottery or gambling, is located in the Russian Federation; the network address of a lottery or gambling participant is registered in the Russian Federation; The international country code of the subscriber number used by a participant in a lottery or gambling when paying for participation in a lottery or gambling has been assigned to the Russian Federation, "the explanatory note[2] says[3]

The Gos­du­mu of the Russian Federation has made a za­konop­ro­ekt on blocking sites for transferring money to online casinos

On March 24, 2021 there was information that the bill providing extrajudicial blocking of the websites via which money in favor of illegal online casinos and lotteries is transferred is introduced to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. Under action of the document credit institutions, payment agents, telecom operators and also the operator of a mail service can get.

The bill proposes to amend articles of federal law No. 244-FZ "On state regulation of activities for organizing and conducting gambling and on amending certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation" and articles of federal law No. 138-FZ "On lotteries."

If the document passes the Duma and the Federation Council, then all banks and payment systems that operate in Russia, as well as telecom operators and Russian Post, will be required to block money transfers from individuals in favor of organizations included in the corresponding register of the Federal Tax Service of Russia (FTS). In case of failure to comply with such requirements, the bill provides for blocking the resources of payment organizations themselves.

"A credit institution, payment agent, telecom operator, postal operator has no right to conclude an agreement with a person included in the list of persons in whose favor money transfers are prohibited," the document says.

The decision to block sites will be made by the Federal Tax Service, which will have the right to send information to the Bank of Russia about detected cases of online transfers by Russian and foreign banks in favor of persons from the register.

"The territory of the Internet Russian Federation shall be recognized as the place of activities for conducting lotteries and gambling using the network," "as well as means of communication, if at least one of the following conditions is fulfilled: the place of residence of the lottery participant or gambling is located on the territory of the Russian Federation; the location in bank which the account of the lottery or gambling participant is opened, used by him when paying for participation in the lottery or gambling, is located in the Russian Federation; the network address of a lottery or gambling participant is registered in the Russian Federation; The international code countries of the subscriber number used by a participant in a lottery or gambling when paying for participation in a lottery or gambling has been assigned to the Russian Federation, "the explanatory note to the bill says.

The authors of the initiative are Sergey Zhigarev, Chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy, Industry, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship, and Alexander Khinshtein, Chairman of the Committee on Information Policy, IT and Communications.^[4]

In Ukraine, began to issue licenses of Internet casinos

In early February 2021, Ukraine began issuing licenses for Internet casinos. The first Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries was issued by Spacics LLC, which owns the Cosmolot trademark. Read more here.

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