There are no online casinos allowed in Russia. Gambling is allowed in the country only in special gambling zones. Betting on the Internet can be accepted by bookmakers, that is, those that are licensed in Russia. Neither these licensed bookmakers, nor anyone else in Russia can offer online casino betting. What law prohibits online casinos? On December 29, 2006, Federal Law No. 244-FZ was adopted. There is article 5 and paragraphs 3 and 4, which answer the question of whether online casinos are allowed in Russia. Paragraph 3 clearly states that online gambling is not allowed. While the fourth point speaks about the possibility of gambling only in the territory of special zones. We advise to read the information about it, as well as about online casino no verification withdrawal.
This point also excludes betting shops and totalizators from those that fall under the ban. So you can see offices where sports betting is quietly accepted, and their sites are not blocked by Roskomnadzor. It is because of this law that you will not find a single casino site registered in Russia. Perhaps even the owners of these operators are in Russia, but the casinos themselves are registered in other countries. Is it possible to play online casino in Russia? The above-mentioned law does not ban casino games. It only refers to a ban on playing games. The ban on the game is not imposed by other documents. And although the law does not explicitly state that citizens have the right to play in foreign online casinos, it is not officially forbidden. It follows that you can play at online casinos in Russia and it will be perfectly legal. On this topic, the director of BTG begins a campaign against the removal of the auto mode The fact that online casinos can not be registered in Russia does not prevent operators to register in other jurisdictions and offer their services to the Russians. Hence the eternal war of RCN against all casinos, which are somehow attractive for Russian punters. This translates into blocking access to casino sites and mirrors. Russia cannot impose fines or other penalties for organizing gambling, because these casinos are out of their jurisdiction. And casinos can’t cancel blocking, but they have long been our ways around it. The absence of a ban on gambling is also evidenced by the attempts of politicians to promote laws that would allow punters to be fined. But no one has yet approved such documents. Back in 2016, deputies tried to push through amendments to Law No. 244-FZ, which would have noted that gambling via the Internet was prohibited. It was then assumed that the law would be in force from January 2017, with fines for violation wanted to be set at 10-20 thousand rubles. But, this did not happen, and the game is still a legal entertainment. Is it legal to play in a casino in Russia and not to pay taxes? But this will already be a violation. According to the law, the Russians are obliged to pay taxes on winnings in the amount of 13%.
The procedure for tax payment and the penalty for evasion of payment is also defined. Read more in this article. Probably few
people pay taxes on gambling winnings. But tax officials sent a document to the Finance Ministry in the summer of 2018 for review. They proposed to expand their powers to obtain data from the bank on request about any citizen. This way they wanted to identify illegal entrepreneurs. But in a similar way you can detect the income from the winnings of casino punters. And you will not be able to deduct your expenses on bets or deposits. Everything that will be withdrawn is treated as winnings from the casino. Even if you withdraw the rest of your deposit. It does not matter. The ban on transfers to online casinos has just come into force, a law that obliges banks and payment systems to block transfers to or from casino sites. The law went into effect on May 26, 2018, but back in mid-autumn there were reports that few banks were following the guidelines. And the rest of the banks are not violating the law by continuing to transfer money to casinos. It’s just that the Federal Internal Revenue Service at the time had not yet provided the required blacklist for the blocking to take place. Read more about that here. Where do the online casinos serving the Russian market come from? These are, for the most part, casinos licensed in Curacao. This is not the best option, because the jurisdiction has a pretty bad reputation. But changes are planned there soon. The government has promised to put things in order, because there are a lot of complaints about online operators in Curacao.
