Tim Alper iGaming Journalist
Tim Alper is a journalist covering betting news and regulation for CasinoBeats, with a focus on regulatory developments and international markets. He reports on breaking stories across Europe and Asia, including gambling law changes and...
Read Full BioA Russian man will face criminal charges after allegedly stealing 200,000 rubles, worth over $2,605, from his girlfriend before frittering the cash away in an online casino.
The woman, an unnamed 30-year-old resident of the city of Sochi, called police in the Khostinsky District of Sochi to report the loss shortly before the arrest, the Russian news agency MK’s Saratov branch reported.
Police said they had arrested the woman’s boyfriend, also aged 30 and unnamed for legal reasons. Officers said the man, a Saratov resident, had been living in the woman’s home prior to the arrest.
Russian Man: Casino Losses Drove Him to Steal
The Krasnodar Krai’s Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that a few days before the alleged theft, the man had lost “a large sum of money at an online casino.”
In an attempt to win back the money he had lost, he reportedly waited until the woman had left the house to go to work before stealing “all of her savings.”
When he went on to lose all of this money, the man “packed his belongings and moved out of the complainant’s home,” police said.
Investigators eventually traced his whereabouts to a Sochi hotel, where he was later detained.
Online gambling has become a controversial issue in Russia, where web-based casino promoters recently took over a government-run website.
Online casino addiction also allegedly led a Russian youth soccer coach to steal money from children and their parents.
However, the nation’s finance ministry has asked the Kremlin to approve a plan to legalise online casinos. The ministry wants to tax operators 30% of their annual earnings, minus winnings payouts. Advocates say the plan will help raise billions of dollars in revenue for the Treasury.
Underground Gambling Club Suspect to Stand Trial
Elsewhere in Russia, prosecutors in the Republic of Ingushetia, in the North Caucasus region, say they have indicted a 32-year-old man accused of operating a gambling ring worth 1.8 million rubles, or $23,500.
The Russian newspaper Gazeta Ingushetia quoted the aforementioned ministry as stating the man helped run an underground gambling club. Courts have frozen the suspect’s bank accounts and will transfer the contents to the treasury if he is found guilty.
Police said they had been hunting the suspect for several years, with three other masterminds previously appearing in court on similar charges.
Officers say the club was operational in the city of Malgobek from December 2020 to June 2021. The defendant and his accomplices reportedly offered Malgobek residents access to computer equipment that ran gambling programs, offering winners cash payouts.
Russian law stipulates that providing casino services outside a designated gambling zone is a criminal offence.
