Gambling industry chiefs believe regulators in Russia could legalize online casinos as soon as April, with residents allowed to wager online by May.
Experts said the Kremlin is looking for a way to balance its books and thinks casino taxes will provide it with a much-needed new revenue stream, the Russian media outlet Vyberu reported.
An executive at one of Russia’s leading bookmakers, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Vyberu that the Ministry of Finance wants to confirm its controversial plan to legalize the sector before the end of April.
The ministry’s much-maligned plan would see would-be operators obliged to apply for permits. Operators would need to pay taxes equivalent to 30% of their annual profits, minus winnings payouts.
For ministry calculations, this would boost the treasury’s coffers by 100 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) per year.
Will Russia Legalize Online Casinos?
Russia banned online casinos in 2009. But the ministry says citizens spend “hundreds of billions of rubles annually” on overseas-based online slots platforms.
The ministry says that it is largely powerless to block these sites. The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), the Russian government’s internet regulator and censorship agency, has made efforts to restrict access to online casinos.
But the ministry says operators launch new mirror sites and duplicate servers “faster than officials can track them.”
Russia’s budget deficit is growing fast. Finance chiefs had set themselves a budget deficit cap of 3.79 trillion rubles for 2026. However, this target was already 91% met by the end of February, the media outlet wrote.
Much of this was due to a 50% decline in oil and gas revenues, the outlet wrote.
Sergey Shvedov, the Editor-in-Chief of the Russian gambling news portal Legalbet, told the same media outlet he believed a “positive outcome” in the legalization issue would happen “in the near future.”
“The ministry is operating under challenging conditions,” Shvedov said. “The budget deficit is growing at an accelerated rate.”
If reports that the ministry wants to fast-track its plan are true, he said, “we are in for a hot April. Not only in terms of weather, but also in terms of legislation.”
Shvedov urged: “Currently, you can spin the roulette wheel on illegal offshore platforms. They may not pay out winnings, but Russian casinos will be obliged to do so.”
Words of Warning
Some industry experts, however, urged caution.
Oleg Davydov, the Executive Director of the First Self-Regulatory Organization of Russian Bookmakers, an industry group representing the country’s top regulated bookmakers, said legalization could prove a lengthy and complicated process.
“A decision to legalize casinos isn’t a mere footnote in the margins of a document,” he said. “It must be a federal law or a package of amendments to existing legislation. The bill must be submitted to the State Duma. It must then pass three readings and receive approval from the Federation Council. Only then can the President sign it.”
The industry will only sit up and pay attention after the government publishes the final text of the bill, Davydov said. “Until then, all talk about this matter is nothing more than speculation.”
Shvedov said the government would be able to use existing age-verification tools to prevent minors from gambling online. But legal experts have previously expressed their doubts.
Politicians have called for an age limit of 21 for online casino access.
The Russian lawyer Olga Fedorova recently claimed that without a “robust” age-verification protocol, the idea of ensuring under-21s do not bet online would be “nothing but a nice idea on paper.”
The post Russia Could Legalize Online Casinos Next Month, Say Industry Officials appeared first on CasinoBeats.
Gambling industry chiefs believe regulators in Russia could legalize online casinos as soon as April, with residents allowed to wager online by May. Experts said the Kremlin is looking for a way to balance its books and thinks casino taxes will provide it with a much-needed new revenue stream, the Russian media outlet Vyberu reported.
The post Russia Could Legalize Online Casinos Next Month, Say Industry Officials appeared first on CasinoBeats.