Russian law enforcers have confiscated cash and made arrests in a raid on a payment platform that reportedly processed payments for over a dozen online casinos.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had teamed up with the nation’s Investigative Committee to carry out the raids, arresting 24 people.
“During searches conducted at the residential addresses of 24 organized crime group members and four office buildings, we seized a variety of items,” Svetlana Petrenko, the head of media relations at the Russian Investigative Committee, said in an official statement. “These [include] cash and luxury items.”
Russian media outlets reported seeing officers leave several addresses with “bags of cash” and impounded high-end motor vehicles.
Russian Payment Platform Provided Services for Casinos
The platform operators provided processing for transactions at the online casinos Pin-Up, Pinco, FreshCasino, Leon, MelBet, MostBet, PlayFortuna, Punch, RioBet, Shangrilla, WhyCasino, lwin, Azino, WinWin, and 888Casino, said Petrenko.
Officers have detained eight of the individuals in custody pending indictment. The FSB and IC do not yet know how much money the platform processed.
“We are carrying out investigations to determine the [size] of the criminally obtained income,” Petrenko said.
The agencies said the arrestees include the “organization’s leaders and its most active members.”
“We have put eight more suspects on the wanted list,” an Investigative Committee spokesperson told the Russian news agency Interfax.
Ministry’s Casino Legalization Plan Still in Limbo
Online casinos are illegal in Russia. In 2018, Moscow told domestic banks and fintech firms to block deposits and withdrawals on overseas online betting platforms.
But some firms have positioned themselves as workarounds. They claim to allow Russia-based gamblers to make deposits and withdraw winnings despite the blocking order.
This year, however, the FSB and others have stepped up their enforcement efforts to shut down illegal payment channels.
And, after a February media exposé linked it to a range of illegal online casinos, the Russian e-pay gateway FreeKassa reportedly shuttered its domestic operations.
The legality or otherwise of online casinos remains a hot topic in Russia. Lawmakers continue to push for new measures to help the FSB and others shut down illegal betting portals.
But the Ministry of Finance has developed a controversial legalization plan. The ministry wants to lift the ban, establish a permit system for authorized operators, and collect a 30% annual tax.
Ministry officials say the plan will raise hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue each year.
But experts say it may boost gambling addiction rates in some of the country’s poorest and most remote areas.
