Russian Banks Now Implement Payment Ban to Offshore Gambling Operators

The bill signed by Vladimir Putin over a year ago is now baring its fangs, with state-owned Sberbank now coldly rejecting transactions to offshore gambling sites and ewallets.

Russia's move to make banks and payment processing companies ban online gambling payments is now in full swing as state-owned and the biggest bank in Russia Sberbank has confirmed that it will no longer allow the processing of online transactions involving blacklisted offshore gambling websites.

On October 19, Federal Law No. 244 (which concerns state regulation in the field of gambling) amendments are now rolling in action, with Sberbank stepping in and becoming the first central bank to block all payments made by plastic cards to offshore gambling operators.

According to Russian media news outlet Rambler, Sberbank issued a statement confirming its decision to restrict payment processing to unlicensed foreign gambling sites. It states, "According to Federal Law No. 244, payments by cards in favor of foreign institutions involved in the organization and conduct of gambling are prohibited. Sberbank always complies with the laws of the Russian Federation and the regulations of the regulatory authorities. At the same time, Sberbank does not limit payments using bank cards to gambling establishments in Russia."

Other banks noted to also limit such payments are VTB and Tinkoff Bank. A spokesperson for VTB said that the bank will implement all the necessary technical measures to identify whether the money transfer will go to online casinos and therefore prevent it from happening.

How does the bank investigate? To see if the foreign entity is indeed a gambling company, the bank checks the payee code assigned by the payment system. Furthermore, there will be a list made consisting of persons associated with illegal (based on Russian laws) gambling businesses. The special black list is provided by the Federal Tax Service. Although, the updated list hasn't been compiled as of yet.

Some experts say that even if the updated list is produced and the number of banks blocking transfers increase, gamblers will find other ways to bet/pay gambling sites abroad, for instance, by using cryptocurrencies or intermediaries.

Source:
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