Major tax increases ahead for Russian gambling industry?

The Russian newspaper Kommersant reports that the Russian Ministry of Finance has proposed a massive ten-fold increase in tax on the nation’s land gambling business, with an additional provision for a 10 percent tax on any future earnings from online bookmaking activity.

Kommersant claims that the proposals will be complete and ready for political approval by the end of 2016

The Russian Legal Information Agency notes that since mid-2009 all legal gambling activity has been restricted to four specialised gheographical gambling zones: Kaliningrad Region, Primorsky Krai, Altai Krai and Krasnodar Krai.

According to Kommersant, Russia has only four legal casinos: “Oracle” and “Nirvana” in Krasnodar Krai, “Altai Palace” in Altai Krai and Tigre de Crystal in Primorsky Krai.

In related news, the deputy prime minister of Crimea, Vitaly Nakhlupin has told local journalists that although he considers the creation of a gambling zone in Crimea an important task, it is not a priority in these times of economic crisis.

Our readers will recall that late last November the Crimean State Council passed a law covering the regulation of gambling in the Republic of Crimea, proposing the creation of a special governing body to oversee legalised gambling in country.

“A very short period has passed from the first decision to create the zone until its implementation, but let’s face it: today there are more overarching objectives than the creation of gambling zones,” Nakhlupin opined.

“Unfortunately, the current state of the economy does not indicate that we will be able to attract big players, because today people do not talk about investing – they save their resources.”

However, the deputy prime minister stressed that the creation of a gambling zone on an area of 5-10 hectares is still on the government’s agenda.