Russia has proposed to impose millions of fines for online casino advertising

In Russia, it is proposed to introduce millions of fines for advertising gambling (online casinos) on the Internet, as well as to establish separate administrative liability for violations of the law on advertising by the gaming business. As Izvestia found out, such amendments to the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation were prepared by the head of the State Duma Committee on Youth Policy from the United Russia faction, Artyom Metelev.

There is no separate responsibility for violating the law for the gambling business today. Although there are rules in the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation that regulate the rules for displaying ads in general. In particular, fines have been imposed for violating the requirements for advertising medicines, credit and microfinance institutions, as well as other organizations.

The explanatory note to the new draft law, which is available to Izvestia, states that for several years in a row, a steady increase in patients with a diagnosis of "Pathological gambling addiction" has been recorded in the Russian Federation. This is evidenced by the data of the Russian Medical Academy of Continuing Professional Education of the Ministry of Health.

In this regard, Artyom Metelev proposes to tighten the legislation, including introducing a new norm in the Administrative Code on the punishment for advertising illegal gambling (online casinos) on the Internet. According to the document, fines with confiscation of equipment for citizens will range from 200 to 500 thousand rubles, for officials — from 500 thousand to 1.5 million rubles, for legal entities — from 5 to 7 million rubles.

According to Artem Metelev, the introduction of punishment is explained by the fact that often the actions of streamers and bloggers cannot be unequivocally qualified as advertising. For example, when they post referral links in a pinned comment under a video or demonstrate a successful game in illegal online casinos on streams, allegedly showing multimillion-dollar winnings, such actions cannot formally be attributed to advertising, but in fact they allow new players to be brought to illegal gambling organizers, the deputy explains.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

There are no more bets: Russia wants to impose millions of fines for online casino advertising