Russia has proposed a legislature that will introduce fines for customers of unauthorised gambling sites, for parents and guardians whose children get addicted to gambling, but also for landlords who allow gambling on premises they rent out, RT News reports.
Russia is keen to force bookies to shed all international ties and has announced an active fight against casinos and websites which violate Russian laws.
The central Russian republic of Tatarstan has been the first one to introduce a bill that sanctions anyone caught gambling online with fines between RUB 10,000 and 20,000. Additionally, parents and guardians who allow youths to gamble online face fines of between RUB 5,000 and 10,000.
Tatarstan’s proposal is the latest attempt to tighten up Russia’s online gambling activities and the country also plans to amend federal gambling. The aim is to ban the activities of bookmakers with foreign founders in the territory of the Russian federation.
Current laws only allow gambling in some areas called “special economic zones”, but the existing legislature also allows the state to block all gambling sites deemed unjust without a court order.
The latest developments in the country have seen a few names of the top European online operators get added to the list of blocked and banned sites in Russia. Government officials are now concentrating on mirrored sites that have been able to dodge the restrictions by going around the state’s ISP blocking.
Some operators have allegedly informed their customers how to manoeuvre around the ISP blocking process and Russia is tightening up their security in order to prevent all illegal actions.
Having in mind that Russian parliamentarians are heading towards September elections, latest moves by the states are somewhat characterised as political propaganda, with the state eager to offer support for those federal deputies who are considered tough on crimes and help them build reputation ahead of the election process.
