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Read Full BioA senior Russian police officer charged with rooting out corruption has been accused of taking bribes from illegal casino and gambling den operators.
The Russian state-run newspaper RIA Novosti reported that Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Omsk Oblast branch is investigating one of its own officers, namely Dmitry Nagibin.
Nagibin is currently serving as a police colonel in the ministry’s Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Department.
The ministry said officers have taken Nagibin into custody. Officials explained that the ministry has handed the case over to the prosecution service.
The ministry says department employees, including Nagibin, accepted bribes from the unnamed owners of several illegal gambling businesses in Omsk. The ministry said the bribes were handed out between December 2021 and April 2025.
Russian Casino Bribes: Police Colonel Faces Probe
“Officials received illegal monetary compensation on an especially large scale,” a spokesperson for the ministry said. “In return, they failed to take measures to suppress illegal activities. These activities were related to the organization and conduct of gambling in Omsk.”
The ministry did not name any of the other officers suspected of wrongdoing.
The spokesperson said that Nagibin and the other officers could be dismissed from the police force before trial.
In May last year, the Russian news agency TASS reported that the Federal Security Service (FSB) shut down a network of underground casinos in three districts of Omsk. The FSB is Russia’s top intelligence agency, .
The FSB said it worked with the National Guard of Russia (Rosgvardia) on a “series of coordinated investigative operations to shut down a network of illegal gambling establishments in Omsk.”
Prosecutors said they had indicted three Omsk residents. They seized cash worth over 3 million rubles ($39,000) from one of the suspects.
A FSB spokesperson said the network comprised underground casinos that began operating in the city’s Central, Kirovsky, and Sovetsky administrative districts in April 2024.
The network’s masterminds allegedly used sophisticated technology to exchange their patrons’ funds for in-game currencies.
Slot Machines Seized
Also last year, the Investigative Committee for the Omsk Region accused two women of operating an illegal casino on the city’s Koneva Street, using PCs and slot machines.
During a raid, law enforcement officers discovered and confiscated 37 computer terminals. They also seized 21 slot machines and around 90,000 rubles ($1,170) in cash.
The defendants were released on bail pending trial, the Russian newspaper Omsk Gazzeta reported.
Police in Siberia say they shut down at least 34 illegal casinos last year as part of a wider crackdown on illicit gambling in the region.
