POC Regime Will be Applied for Gambling Transactions in Russia

Added: May 12, 2021

The lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma is in the process of passing new legislation against unauthorized remote gambling transactions (Bill № 1133991-7).

The main goal of the new legislation is to define the scope of what is considered a remote gambling operation by the iGaming businesses registered and operating outside the Russian Federation.

If the transaction is done by the players located in Russia, using a Russian IP address, phone number, etc., according to the new bill, the Russian authorities will easily locate the companies that are suspected of illegal gambling.

Chief Executive Officer and Senior Partner of 4H Agency operating in Commonwealth of Independent States, Mr. Ilya Machavariani says:

“This bill changes the risk profile for operators in accepting Russian players without a Russian license, as it removes the potential for doubt in determining whether that firm is offshore.”

If the bill successfully passes 3 readings in the State Duma will come into force and affect banks and other financial institutions that provide services to blacklisted gambling sites. Moreover, in addition to current payment restrictions, transactions to the blacklisted companies will be blocked.

In other words, offshore gambling service providers will not be able to operate in Russia without a local license. This, there will be a list of companies that are registered in Russia allowed to carry out financial operations. In the reasoning behind the bill we can read that:

“Russian financial institutions are forbidden from entering into any contracts with entities that are not in this list”.

TSUPIS system that is used by the Russian tax authorities currently contains the names of 29 sports bookmakers who have the seal of approval from the federal agency.

Mr. Machavariani further explains the content of the bill:

“Having analyzed the supporting documentation to the bill, we’d like to draw your attention to the fact that the Russian authorities are going to install administrative liability for Russian payment institutions violating the requirement not to transfer any payments to offshore gambling operators in the blacklist and outside the whitelist. The Russian Regulator is granted with the right to block websites of not only offshore operators but payment institutions as well.”

Russian Duma, Russian State Duma