Russian watchdog fines Google

The gambling regulator from Russia has fined the search engine company for not removing illegal websites.

Russia.- Russian telecom regulatory authority Roskomnadzor has fined Google for not removing illegal gambling sites from its search results. Besides the US$7.5k fine, the authority also blocked 3,000 gambling websites.

The Russian watchdog said that most of the blocked sites mirrored famous brands of bookmaker operators, and the sites include online poker rooms, online lotteries and online casino domains.

The current legislation establishes that all search engines must check a registry of banned sites and remove them from their search results. While the registry currently features more than 100,000 websites, the government is studying the possibility of a new law that would raise the penalties for these types of violations.

As reported earlier this month, the government is also getting ready to abolish self-regulatory organisations (SROs) which represent licensed operators’ interests in the country and sparked operators’ objections on the issue. Authorities consider SROs to be duplicating the Federal Tax Service’s (FTS) functions but bookmakers are concerned about what they consider to be “a strange initiative.”