SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Russian First Deputy Minister Igor Shuvalov has order the Russian Finance and Economic Development Ministry to study the potential legalisation of online poker in the country.
Russian business news source Kommersant, reported that senior Russian government ministers had been impressed with financial reports projecting that the government could raise a $145 million in annual fiscal revenues from online poker.
Acting on behalf of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s Cabinet, Igor Shuvalov instructed the Ministry for Economic Development and the Ministry of Justice to compile a study on the potential legalisation of online poker. Kommersant, reported that the study would be reviewed internally by senior government ministers.
Russia currently holds a stringent stance against online gambling, the Russian government monitor several unlicensed online gambling websites, and in many instances have blocked access to websites by restricting regional ISP’s and imposing transactional payment blocks on Russian credit card payments.
The prosecutor’s office created a blacklist of offending sites, which included heavy-hitters like PokerStars, PartyPoker, Carbon Poker, SportingBet and Ladbrokes, among around 50 others.
