Tim Alper is a journalist who covers betting news and regulation for CasinoBeats. He joined the CasinoBeats team in May 2025. He reports on breaking news and developments in the world of betting, casinos, and...
Read Full BioRussian police say they have shut down illegal underground casinos in two of the country’s highest-security prisons.
The Russian media outlet RG.ru reported that a court in Kamensk-Uralsky has sentenced a former inspector at maximum-security penal colony No. 47 to six years in prison.
The court convicted a former prison officer of several corruption-related offenses. Prosecutors told the court he had accepted bribes to help prisoners operate the casino.
The officer also provided them with cell phones so they could help develop their gambling resources.
Casino Mastermind Receives Extended Sentence
The court heard that the casino was the brainchild of a 39-year-old inmate with “multiple convictions.”
The scale of the operation was “grand,” prosecutors explained. The inmate “set up a designated room where gambling enthusiasts could gather.”
He equipped this room with tables and benches, made his own poker cards and chips, and wrote comprehensive rules for the games he operated.
This illegal business “flourished from January 2023 to August 2024,” prosecutors added. The mastermind first conceived the idea of operating a casino after initially organizing a gambling ring where players used cigarettes as stakes.
The court did not disclose the amount of money the man was able to make from his illegal casino. However, the court extended his prison sentence by more than a year.
Prosecutors are also set to seek punishment for the correctional facility employees who failed to notice the existence of a gambling room in the prison.
Prison Casino Organizer Gets Suspended Jail Sentence
Elsewhere in the country, a Russian ex-convict has received a suspended jail term after running a self-made casino in a maximum-security penal colony in Semiluki, a town around 600km south of Moscow.
The Russian media outlet Vesti Voronezh reported that a court in Voronezh Oblast heard that the man also made decks of cards and chips.
The 34-year-old man, who had recently been released from prison, was handed a one-year suspended sentence. The man, described as a resident of Voronezh, operated gambling games for fellow inmates in his dormitory. He then transferred his profits to his wife’s bank account, amassing a modest 2,000 rubles ($24).
Russian police have reported a sharp rise in illegal casino-related crime in recent months. On its Telegram channel, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs released video footage of a raid on a network of illegal slot machine centers in the Russian Far East and Southern Siberia.
Officers raided three addresses in the Irkutsk and Magadan oblasts. They said an organized criminal group had programmed computers to run casino-related software in the centers.
The ministry arrested eight individuals on suspicion of organizing and conducting illegal gambling. Agents also seized laptops and other equipment.
New Legislation Incoming
Earlier this month, police in Crimea said they had shut down a casino they found operating in central Simferopol.
In Moscow, lawmakers are poised to approve new legislation that seeks to punish casinos and bookmakers who take bets from self-blacklisted individuals.
The Russian Health Ministry operates an opt-in system that allows people with gambling addictions to stop themselves from placing bets in the future. The state has called this system a form of “self-prohibition.”
