Russia goes after sports betting portals, affiliates

News website Izvestia.ru announced that the media regulator Roskomnadzor has started to enhance its IP-restrictions, which targets high traffic affiliate websites.

Roskomonador has already shut more than 6,000 gambling and lottery websites, the news report says.

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Last month, from June 8 to 21, 118 online casinos and online sportsbooks' websites were blocked by the media regulator

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At least 50 applications in Apple's AppStore and Google Play were blocked by the Roskomonador, according to the report.

“Since October 2015, the Russian Federal Tax Service (FTS) decided against more than 6 thousand of sites on the Internet that contain information that violates the requirement to ban the activities of the organization and conduct of gambling and lotteries with the use of the Internet and other means of communication,” said Maxim Krasnov of the FTS. “Decisions are made on the basis of entering the Russian Federal Tax Service of citizens and legal entities.”

At the beginning of the year, the Duma said it would cut off unlicensed operators targeting Russian players. The Roskomnadzor had already restricted Russian IP access to European betting operators such as Triobet, Unibet, 888 and Betway.

Government officials noted they would only favor those operators which are in compliance with its TSUPIS payment processing and money transfer codes.