Russia to reinforce anti iGaming control
Russia is now going against web-search companies that boost iGaming ads.
Russia.- Russian gaming authorities have been trying to strengthen the country’s regulations on iGaming as they want to completely forbid both illegal operations and unlicenced gaming advertising. In the meantime, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service accused Fonbet of offering iGaming ads through the web-search company Yandex, and now both are being investigated.
According to the Russian authorities’ statement, Yandex allowed the distribution of gaming ads by the operator Fonbet during the FIFA World Cup, local media reports. Furthermore, Yandex was accused of distributing ads “in records of the best moments of these matches and on several Yandex services.”
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 in the last few months.
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.
