Online Gambling Ban in Russia Fails to be Implemented Effectively

At the moment, the online gambling ban in Russia cannot be strictly observed. Are you curious why? We’ve got you covered. In Russia, online gambling started to gain popularity in the early 2000s even though it has always been banned. Despite the ban, Russians still spend around 3 billion USD illegally gambling online with international providers each year. So far, there is a law in Russia that demands Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block not only online casino sites in Russia, but all sites related to gambling. If the ISPs are slow to this, they will be fined a hefty sum of money.

Online Gambling Ban in Russia is Like a Cat and Mouse Game

How do they know which sites to ban? A Russian federal agency called Roskomnadzor is adding sites to be blocked daily. As of right now, more than 20,000 gambling domains are on the blacklist. We all have this mentality: the more you ban me, the more I want to do it. Forbidden things are infinitely more appealing. The online gambling ban in Russia fits this category.

Reacting in the Russian way

So what do the Russians do? They get around the whole website blockage ordeal by using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and anonymizers. These tools help mask their actual location, hide their identity and pretend that they are from another country. The Russian government realized that just having ISPs blocking the online gambling sites is not effective enough. They must make their next move in this cat and mouse game. So, President Vladimir Putin passed a new internet gambling law in Russia. Starting from November 1st, VPNs and anonymizers will also be restricted.

There’s always a loophole...

Apart from that, Roskomnadzor reportedly reached an agreement with leading search engines namely Mail, Sputnik and Yandex.ru to deny access to online casino sites in Russia and in other countries as well. It seems the current government is intent on the complete online gambling ban in Russia. We are curious to see how the Russians find a loophole in these new law and regulations. Anyway, the good news is Russians can always choose the alternatives: legal online gambling like sports betting, bingo and lottery!