New Russian bill targets online gambling financial transactions
News on 16 Oct 2015
News on 16 Oct 2015
Russia’s version of the US Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has been introduced to the Russian Duma by the Finance Ministry and reportedly has strong political support that includes the all-powerful president, Vladimir Putin.
Like UIGEA, the proposed legislation seeks to disrupt illegal gambling financial transactions, and prohibits banks from processing such deals.
A Finance Ministry spokesman told the Russian publication Kommersant that Russian residents are prohibited from gambling on land or via the Internet and the law will help the authorities to enforce that ban.
The Russian administration has been sending apparently conflicting signals this year; in addition to the new finance measure detailed above there have been unsuccessful attempts to introduce ISP-blocking, and Roskomnadzor maintains an online gambling website blacklist, yet only two months ago President Putin directed that a study should be made on regulating online poker due to its skill-based nature.
