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 BioOnline casino promoters have taken over a website belonging to Yakutsk, a major Russian city.
At the time of writing, attempting to access the website navigates users to a site that claims to be operated by Melbet. Melbet is a Moscow-based, permit-holding Russian bookmaker that obtained its operating licence in 2012.
However, Melbet does not offer any online casino services. Instead, the page contains links to a range of other Russian-language casino sites, all of which are illegal per Russian law. The page also offers visitors promotional codes and free credit if they click on the links.
Russian City: We Don’t Control Site
The city claimed it no longer has control over the site. “The domain in question has been decommissioned,” a city spokesperson said.
But efforts to redirect traffic to another Yakutsk-run portal appear to have hit a roadblock, with many residents complaining they cannot access it.
“The city’s official website is operational, but many people are complaining they can’t access it,” the spokesperson added. “Our system administrators are looking into the matter.”
Several Russian reporters have confirmed that this new site appears to be offline, the media outlet RIAMO reported.
Gambling Firm Denies Connection to Site
Melbet told the Russian media outlet 14.Ru that “it has no connection with the online casino site that is exploiting its name by hijacking the city’s domain.”
The company confirmed that it “only provides bookmaking services,” noting that “online casino activities are prohibited in Russia.”
The bogus Melbet site claims to allow players from Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan to place bets using Belarusian rubles, Russian rubles, euros, US dollars, Ukrainian hryvnia, and several other currencies.
It also claims gamblers can use its links to place crypto bets using tokens like Bitcoin, XRP, and Ethereum.
The site also claims to have an operating permit issued by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media.
Yakutsk, famously the coldest city in the world, is the capital and largest city in the Sakha region. It is located some 450km south of the Arctic Circle and is home to major diamond and coal mining communities.
Gambling Den Operators Sentenced
Elsewhere in the country, a court in Siberia has handed suspended jail sentences to nine illegal casino operators, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.
The gang rented a commercial property in the Irkutsk region, where they let patrons bet on card games and on computers running slot machines.
Prosecutors told the court that the gambling den was operational between September 2020 and February 2021. The court gave all nine defendants suspended prison terms of between two and three years. The same court also ordered each defendant to pay a fine of 100,000 rubles (over $1,300).
Police and prosecutors have begun a crackdown on Siberia, which is home to one of the country’s four official gambling zones. Officers say they closed down 34 illegal casinos in Siberia last year.
