Poker Writer
Russia is considering legalizing online casinos as a new source of revenue to help alleviate the strain that its ongoing war in Ukraine has put on the budget. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov proposed the idea to Vladimir Putin, as reported on Tuesday by the independent political news outlet Novaya Gazeta.
The revenue from legalization could reach 100 billion rubles per year (about $1.3 billion). Under Siluanov’s proposed system, Russia would need to set up a special operator to work with online casinos. It would accept bets from adults 21 or older through a single centralized system. There would also be a 30% tax on all gambling revenue earned by licensed gambling companies.
A timeline for when Putin would consider the online gambling proposal is not yet known.
Russia Needs New Revenue Streams
Russia is in need of revenue, with the war against Ukraine entering its fifth year and showing few signs of slowing. Military expenses continue to run Russian coffers dry. Russian oil and gas revenues are falling. The Finance Ministry has warned that there will be a sizable budget deficit at the start of 2026.
As of now, it seems scaling back the war will not be the answer to fixing the budget, according to Alexandra Prokopenko, an expert at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin:
It’s still too early to say that the current structure of the economy is forcing Russia to scale back the war. More accurately, the current structure of the economy is screaming that the war should never have been started.
Siluanov and his deputy, Vladimir Kolychev, have been searching for non-military ways to increase revenue streams, and gambling in Russia is one of the more popular options.
Russia Was Once the Most Important Market for Online Poker
Online gambling was, and potentially remains, a booming business in Russia. However, the war in Ukraine has put political pressure on regulated Western operators, causing most to treat Russia as off-limits, whereas it was once considered a “gray” market.
After the 2011 U.S. online poker crackdown, Russia emerged as the most important market for PokerStars and other international operators. By 2015 or so, most dot-com sites were receiving roughly one-third of all of their traffic from Russia.
But after the invasion of Ukraine, operators pulled out of the country due to international pressure and sanctions. Many PokerStars customers rebuked the online poker site for allowing Russian players to continue playing shortly after the invasion. But PokerStars acted quickly, pulling out of operations in the country in April 2022.
Other poker sites followed suit and removed themselves from the Russian market, turning their backs on sizable potential traffic.
GGPoker, however, only withdrew its flagship skin from the market while retaining Russian players through other brands on the same network. To this day, it accepts players through its Russia-facing skin PokerOK, which is owned by a separate company. PokerOK made headlines in April 2024 when its CEO forced GGPoker to put restrictions on player stables.
The loss of the Russian market was one of the factors that contributed to PokerStars’ loss of its global market lead and to GGPoker’s ascendance to its current dominant position.
