The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the first reading a bill on administrative penalties for providing money transfer services to illegal online casinos and lotteries. The document prescribes responsibility for telecom operators, payment agents and banks, reports TASS.
Violation of legislation in the field of regulation of gambling and lotteries will entail a fine for officials in the amount of 100 thousand to 500 thousand rubles, for legal entities – from 25 to 40 percent of the amount of the accepted payment, but not less than 5 million rubles. If illegal actions are committed by the bank, the fine for the official will be from 100 thousand to 500 thousand rubles.
According to Russian legislation, the Federal Tax Service maintains a list of organizers of illegal online lotteries and online gambling. Their activities in the country have been banned since 2007 (with the exception of bookmakers and sweepstakes). Money transfers in favor of the organizers of illegal gambling have been prohibited since 2018.
In 2019, the Federal Tax Service was given the authority to conduct control purchases to identify organizers of illegal lotteries and gambling.
Meanwhile, the experts of Roskachestvo called “an analogue of the casino” mobile games played by children. Experts noted that through the element of excitement in games, a mechanism of dependence is formed in children, especially dangerous for the child’s psyche.