Russia's Telecom Agency Tweaks Gambling Blacklist Tools

Keeping international online gambling sites from reaching Russia is the country’s latest patch to enhancing domain-blocking mechanisms. The national telecom agency, Roskomnadzor, has announced a new program for October 1st, that will enable it to enter domains’ forbidden registry using the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

According to the agency, Internet service providers will no longer be able to “slip through the blocking mechanism” after the upgrade, making IPv4 protocol’s easily breached defense a thing of the past.

A Record-Breaking Banner

Roskomnadzor has gained a fearsome reputation among internationally licensed gambling portals, since it belongs to the world’s most ban-approving regulators… In August 2018, the agency blacklisted more than 3,300 unauthorized gaming portals.

Apart from dealing with public complaints about unlicensed operators, the regulator processes above 240,000 tickets regarding illegal online betting activities as well, due to the growing trend from 2017.

Central Bank To The Rescue

In the meantime, Russia’s Central Bank is looking for a way to assist the regulator in tweaking gambling blacklist measures by drafting an additional framework under the Law on Information. The amendment would allow it to prohibit transactions on domains with potential “financial fraud” markers. By doing so, the bank could avoid filing court orders before putting authorized bans on gaming sites.

To summarize, major Russian financial institutions have already gained a permission to bar payments to unauthorized gambling sites in May 2018. As a result, the Federal Tax Service sought a warrant two months later to access customer information at will and identify or suppress illegal business activities.