Russia blocks iGaming sites
Over 1,800 online gaming sites have been blocked during the last week in Russia.
Russia.- As the FIFA World Cup is getting close, Russia set a harder crackdown on online sports betting platforms to eliminate illegal gaming options from the market. Under the crackdown framework, the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) has blocked over 1,800 gaming sites during the last week.
The online gaming industry has been limited by the implementation of a new virtual private network (VPN). The new platform has helped authorities block unlicensed iGaming sites and restricted players’ access to international websites. Online companies are concerned that Russia’s crackdown on several internet sectors may affect the free access to websites in general. In particular, VPN services are expected to be completely banned if policies against online domains keep getting approved.
According to Casino Reports, “the regulator blocked 62,734 gambling sites in 2017 – these sites include online casinos, online lotteries, sportsbooks and poker rooms.” And continued: “in addition, there were many websites that did not offer any form of gambling and instead were blacklisted only for providing gambling-related information.”
Furthermore, the negative perspective in the country grows as authorities are allegedly preparing a law to expand the power of Roskomnadzor, which would jeopardise the technology and communications companies’ operations.
