Russia passes player identification bill

The bill is aimed at facilitating the identification process that players go through in order to place bets online in Russia.

Russia.- The State Duma of Russia passed on Friday its third reading of a bill that changes the process for players to confirm their identification before they can place bets online. Some of the measures of the bill feature the elimination of a double check on players’ identification.

According to the bill passed by State Duma, which is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, players would no longer be subject to a double identification when placing online bets. Bookies would be granted the right to delegate the identification to the centre that processes online bets (TSUPIS).

“The complex, multi-step identification process is incomprehensible to the gambler, in some cases unfeasible, encourages players to search for ways to overcome government measures aimed at combating illegal gambling business in order to gain access to foreign sites subjected to blocking,” reads a note accompanying the bill.

Russian bookmakers welcomed the bill and have already predicted that this will lead to a 5% increase in punters placing bets online with legal bookmakers by the end of the current year, while this would increase to 15% by the end of 2020.

In order to turn into law, the bill still needs to pass the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, the Federal Council and then it would need the signature of Russian President Vladimir Putin.