Online payment providers QIWI and Skrill (Paysafe Group), have become the latest firms to be penalised by Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor.
Last week, the payment providers were served notices by Roskomnadzor stating that they had breached Russian gambling laws relating to facilitating online gaming payments and that their services contained links to unlicensed betting operators.
Roskomnadzor has given both payment providers a grace period in which to remove all links and stop their services to ‘blacklisted’ online gambling operators.
This month Russian news sources have reported that Roskomnadzor has stepped up its efforts in restricted consumer access to unlicensed operators, by widening its IP restrictions to affiliate marketing websites and through tougher monitoring of Russian language sports media portals.
In 2016, the Russian Duma has publically stated that it will no longer tolerate unlicensed operators breaching its gambling code. To date, Roskomnadzor is reported to have blacklisted 6000 websites promoting online gambling services.
Russian government officials stated that they would only favour online bookmakers and gambling operators compliant with its TSUPIS payment processing and money transfer codes, which would protect Russian consumers against criminal and fraudulent activities.