Russia increases betting taxes

The president of the Eurasian country signed into law two bills that increase taxes for gambling.

Russia.- The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has signed into law a couple of bills that regulate betting activities in the country. Whilst the first one focuses on increasing gambling tax rates, the second restricts the money transferred to illegal bookmakers.

One of the bills increases tax rates all across the country from US$860 to US$4300 for gaming tables, US$50 to US$260 for slot machines and a tax on online betting processing centre that goes from RUB 2.5 to 3 million. Russia features two centres run by different bookmakers.

The new law also establishes that bookmakers and totes need to cut taxes from wins totaling or surpassing RUB 15k.

Last month, the Ministry of Finance’s website also revealed the guidelines for its budget and taxes for 2018-2020, which established that gaming taxes are expected to double starting January 1, 2018, with further increases until 2020.

The Ministry said that gaming tax rates, which haven’t increased in 13 years, will increase 10 times by 2020 in order to increase revenue from official budgets. Land-based operators currently don’t pay any taxes on gaming revenue but they do pay flat fees for gaming tables or electronic gambling machines, whilst bookmakers pay a similar flat fee for each retail they have. The new regulations will be applied to both land-based and online gambling operators.