State Duma wants to ban banks from cooperating with online casinos

An initiative was sent to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, according to which any credit institutions of the country, including banks, and mobile operators will be forbidden to enter into partnership agreements with online casinos and illegal lotteries. The main authors of the bill are representatives of the deputy corps – Alexander Khinstein and Sergey Zhigarev.

Current legislation of the Russian Federation provides for the Federal Tax Service to keep records of all operators, who organize illegal gambling business on the Internet. The activities of such companies are completely prohibited since 2007. The exceptions are bookmaker’s offices and totalizators that have official Russian licenses.

The document states: “Any credit organizations, postal and mobile operators and other agents of payment systems have no right to conclude agreements with persons for whose benefit the legislation of the Russian Federation prohibits monetary transactions. If such agreements have already been concluded before, they are subject to immediate termination. The term of termination of the partnership between the two parties is one month from the date of publication of the list of illegal gambling operators presented on the official website of the Federal Tax Service.”

In addition, since 2018, the Central Bank of Russia has vetoed international money transfers that are intended for illegal online casino organizers and other gambling sites.

Credit institutions that violate the new law will be held accountable for their actions to the Federal Tax Service. If their guilt is proven, the policy of depriving them of their license to conduct relevant activities may be applied as a punitive measure.

Websites making cross-border transfers in favor of gambling companies banned in Russia will be subject to extrajudicial blocking by the Federal Tax Service.

Recall that WebMoney was banned from conducting transactions in favor of online casinos.