Russian Legislature Considering New Online Gambling Legislation
If you are an insider of the online gambling industry, you will know that Russia is not among the countries who are very friendly to online gambling. On the contrary, the country does a lot to prevent its citizens to gamble online, especially in foreign operated casinos.
This makes a lot of sense of course as the Russian gamblers deposit billions of dollars on a yearly basis into online casinos and the government would rather that money be spend in local brick and mortar casinos or in online sites owned and operated by Russians, where they can tax it.
Much like the USA, Russia has attempted to prevent its banks and financial institutions from allowing people to make transactions into online gambling sites owned by foreign entities and while such legislation did not pass in the past, a new attempt is being made at passing it now.
Russian UIGEA To See Banks Block Gambling Transactions
The new proposed law was created by the Ministry of Finance and if passed would see a black list created which would include as many international gambling sites as possible. This list would be sent to all financial institutions in the country with specific instructions of blocking citizens from making deposits into their accounts with the companies on the list.
This would mean that it would no longer be possible for Russians to make deposits into any of the popular European and international online casinos, sportsbooks or poker sites and would surely discourage millions of Russians from even attempting to make such deposits.
A similar measure exists in the United States of America, where the UIGEA legislation is set in place to punish the players and the financial institutions who would help facilitate online gambling transactions.
All About The Taxes?
While governments often use rhetoric that includes statements on saving their population from the scourge of gambling, the fact is that in most cases it’s all about the taxation. If Russian government would succeed in preventing gamblers from playing with international sites, this would inevitably increase traffic in domestic brick and mortar casinos as well as open room for more domestic online sites to appear in the future. All of these would be heavily taxed by the government as is the case in the US.
The new legislation is an amended version of the previously proposed one and those who are in favor of it seem to be optimistic that this time around it will pass. Passing of this legislation would spell bad news for those Russians who are used to making online gambling transactions on a common basis, so keep an eye out on how this one ends if you live in Russia and gamble online.
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