Russia mulls new measures to combat illegal gambling adverts

Russian legislators could allow the government to block illegal online casino advertising without a court order, while sentencing those who promote such sites to hard labor.

On Friday, Russia’s official parliamentary gazette reported that Youth Parliament leaders would submit a bill to the State Duma’s Information Policy Committee in September that would force internet service providers to restrict access to illegal online casino advertising the moment such promos are detected.

The move follows this week’s news that Curacao-licensed online casino Azino777 was Russia’s top online video advertiser – outpacing even Coca-Cola – in the first half of 2018. At present, Russia permits only online sports betting by a few select companies, so either operating or promoting online casinos is strictly agin’ the law.

The Youth Parliament also wants to sentence Russian celebrities – like rappers Guf and Viti AK-47 – who promote online casinos to ‘compulsory corrective works’ aka busting rocks with a pickaxe in some mosquito-infested Siberian forest. Youth leader Maria Voropayeva said such punishments were needed to ensure these celebrities “suffer from fraudulent actions.”