Russian e-Pay Platform Closes Down Over Online Casino Links Report

The Russian e-pay gateway FreeKassa has reportedly shut down, days after a major media exposé linked it to a range of illegal online casinos.

The report was published by the Russian newspaper Izvestia on February 3. The same media outlet reported that, as of February 5, the service’s main website is “unavailable,” with its official VKontakte groups and Telegram channels deleted.

The firm’s referral links and partner integrations are also “no longer functional,” Izvestia added.

FreeKassa is also no longer listed as a deposit or withdrawal option at several popular online casinos in Russia.

Russian e-Pay Platform Shutters

Prior to the report, FreeKassa was one of the most common methods for making payments to gambling platforms, which are illegal in Russia, such as 1Win.

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s internet censor, has previously issued blocking orders to FreeKassa’s .ru and .com domains following a request from law enforcement agencies.

However, the payment gateway reportedly used mirror sites to bypass the blocking order, allowing online casino users to top up their accounts with Russian rubles, foreign currency, and cryptocurrency.

CasinoBeats, however, has seen evidence that some FreeKassa-related pages – both in Russian and English – appear to still be online. A related Telegram bot service also appears to be functional. Its dedicated merchant’s portal, however, was not functioning at the time of writing.

Izvestia said it had seen evidence that the platform used bank accounts belonging to thousands of card mules to help process transactions.

Gambling Addiction Problems

Illegal casinos would not be able to function without pay gateway services like FreeKassa, Andrey Khodykov, the Executive Director of the Center for Combating Gambling Addiction, told the newspaper.

“At least 5% of Russians exhibit signs of gambling addiction,” said Khodykov. “This is a severe addictive disorder that consistently destroys people’s lives.”

Russian gambling addicts “lose motivation to work and drop out of social spheres,” he continued.

“The suicide rate among gambling addicts is 15 times higher than the average for the population,” Khodykov said.

Research from the Moscow-based National Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology appears to back up Khodykov’s claims.

The center says up to 40% of people suffering from severe gambling addictions have attempted suicide.

The majority of Russian patients with gambling disorder are men aged 30-40 years, the center says. But it has also noted a “steady increase” in gambling in female and elderly populations.

The report comes in the wake of the Ministry of Finance’s controversial plan to legalize online casinos in Russia.

Ministry’s Controversial Plan

Most forms of online gambling are illegal in Russia. The ministry says it wants to regulate the sector and force operators to pay a 30% tax rate. The plan will help raise billions of dollars worth of revenue for the state budget, the ministry says.

The Kremlin has thus far refrained from commenting on the matter.

Russian popular opinion is deeply divided on the issue of the legalization of online casinos. The Russian media outlet Plus World said a survey of readers conducted on its Telegram channel from January 29 to February found that almost half of respondents (45%) believe legalizing online casinos is “unethical.”

A similar number of people said the ministry’s plan “undermines the values of work, education, and planning.”

Over 40% said the plan would increase the number of gambling addicts and lead to a rise in crime.

However, 31% supported the move, agreeing that it would bring economic benefits to Russia by increasing budget revenues. And 12% of survey respondents said legalization could help combat money laundering.

The media outlet, which has around 6,000 Telegram subscribers, did not say how many people took part in its survey.