Russia Online Casino and Gambling Guide

Published by Casino News Daily editorial teamReviewed byFilip RadulovicOur editorial approach

In short: Online casinos, slots and poker are illegal in Russia under Federal Law No. 244-FZ. The only lawful online gambling is betting with FNS-licensed bookmakers and totalisators connected to the single accounting centre overseen by the Unified Gambling Regulator, while land casinos may operate only in designated gambling zones.

Russia permits gambling only in two narrow channels. Casinos and slot halls may operate solely inside designated “gambling zones” in a handful of regions. Bookmakers and totalisators may accept bets, including online bets, but only through a centralised payment and accounting system. Everything else is prohibited, including online casinos, online poker and online slots. The framework is set by Federal Law No. 244-FZ of 29 December 2006, which has been amended many times. In recent years the state has strengthened enforcement through a unified gambling regulator, mandatory reporting of bets, payment controls, mass blocking of websites and, since a 2025 amendment, a national self-exclusion register. This guide explains how that system works and what it means for players.

Key points

Under Article 5 of Federal Law No. 244-FZ, gambling may be organised only by licensed organisers in authorised gambling establishments. Gambling over the internet and other telecommunications networks is prohibited, except for interactive bets accepted by bookmakers and totalisators.
Casinos are confined to gambling zones in six regions listed in Article 9. Four zones were operating in 2024, receiving about 2.1 million visitors.
Online betting is lawful only with licensed bookmakers that are connected to the single centre for accounting of bet transfers. The Unified Gambling Regulator reported 23 licensed gambling organisers at the end of 2025.
In 2025 the Regulator identified and passed to the Federal Tax Service 226,092 domain names, page identifiers and network addresses used for unlawful gambling.
Since an amendment of 29 December 2025, individuals can enter a national self-exclusion register for at least 12 months, through a multifunctional public-service centre or the state services portal.

Regional overview: Gambling laws in the EU and the rest of Europe puts all 55 countries and territories on one map, grouped by how they regulate gambling.

Last reviewed: 14 October 2026.

Historical development

Gambling was outlawed in the Soviet Union for most of its history. According to Argumenty i Fakty, the first Soviet casino opened in a Tallinn hotel in spring 1989, and a casino opened in a Moscow hotel that summer. The industry then grew rapidly and with little regulation. By 2005 the country had about 400,000 slot machines and 5,000 gaming tables, and around 60% of gambling clubs were concentrated in Moscow and St Petersburg.

Federal Law No. 244-FZ, “On State Regulation of Activities for the Organisation and Conduct of Gambling”, was adopted on 29 December 2006 (consolidated text). It took effect in 2007 with a transition period. From 1 July 2009 casinos and slot halls were prohibited everywhere except in designated gambling zones, while betting shops and totalisators could continue to operate outside the zones under licence (Izvestia). The four original zones were in Kaliningrad, Krasnodar, Altai and Primorye. The Azov-City complex in the Krasnodar zone closed in 2015, and the region’s gambling activity moved to the Krasnaya Polyana resort near Sochi, which had been developed for the 2014 Winter Olympics (TheBusinessYear).

Online betting was brought into the legal framework from 2014 through payment-processing centres for interactive bets. In 2021 the system was centralised under a single public-law company, the Unified Gambling Regulator (ERAI), established by Federal Law No. 493-FZ of 30 December 2020 and created on 23 June 2021.

Legal framework

Illustrated Russia landmarks with reference books and documents for the gambling regulation and authorities in russia section

Federal Law No. 244-FZ

Federal Law No. 244-FZ is the core statute. According to ConsultantPlus, the consolidated text was last amended on 26 June 2026. Its main provisions are:

Article 5 (general requirements). Gambling may be organised “exclusively by organisers of gambling” who comply with the law, and only in gambling establishments that meet its requirements. Part 3 prohibits organising and conducting gambling in Russia using information and telecommunications networks, including the internet and mobile communications, “except for the acceptance of interactive bets” by bookmakers and totalisators under the conditions of the law (Article 5).
Article 5.1 (payments). This article restricts money transfers and the acceptance of payments from individuals in connection with gambling organised in breach of the law (table of contents).
Article 5.2 (self-exclusion). This article creates the national self-exclusion register described below (Article 5.2).
Article 9 (gambling zones). Gambling zones may be created in the Altai Republic, the Republic of Crimea, Altai Krai, Krasnodar Krai, Primorsky Krai and Kaliningrad Oblast. Special rules let the Crimean authorities set zone boundaries themselves and limit the Krasnodar zone to former Olympic sites (Article 9).
Article 14.2 (single accounting centre). This article governs the “single centre for accounting of bet transfers of bookmakers and totalisators” (known by its Russian abbreviation, ETsUP), through which all interactive bets must pass.

The inclusion of Crimea in Article 9 reflects Russian domestic law. Under international law, Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 is not recognised by most states. The UN General Assembly affirmed Ukraine’s territorial integrity in Resolution 68/262 of 27 March 2014.

Website blocking

Blocking rests on Article 15.1 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ “On Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information”. It establishes a unified register of domain names and network addresses containing information whose distribution is prohibited in Russia. One of the listed categories is information “violating the requirements of Federal Law No. 244-FZ”. Decisions are taken by federal executive bodies authorised by the government. The register is the mechanism through which access to such sites is restricted by internet service providers, a practice usually called IP or domain blocking.

Criminal and administrative liability

Illegal organisation of gambling is a criminal offence under Article 171.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The official text of the penalty provisions could not be retrieved in full for this review, so the sanctions are not stated here.

Regulators and licensing

Responsibility is shared among several bodies:

The Federal Tax Service (FNS) licenses bookmakers and totalisators and supervises gambling organisers. It also receives reports of unlawful gambling sites for blocking. RBC reported that 21 legal entities held FNS gambling licences in September 2024.
The Unified Gambling Regulator (ERAI) is a state-owned public-law company. Its stated purpose is “raising the effectiveness of state control and supervision” over gambling while ensuring extra-budgetary financing of sport (ERAI). It collects data on bets, distributes bookmakers’ mandatory contributions to sport, maintains the self-exclusion register and identifies illegal operators.
The regional authorities of the zone regions have a role in the gambling zones within the framework set by Article 9. For example, the Crimean authorities may set the zone’s boundaries themselves.

The ERAI’s 2025 annual report recorded 23 licensed gambling organisers at 31 December 2025, 19 of them sports betting operators transmitting data automatically. In 2025 the Regulator distributed RUB 38.11 billion in targeted contributions to 116 sports organisations, of which RUB 21.76 billion went to the Russian Sports Fund.

Gambling zones in practice

Four zones were operating in 2024: Yantarnaya (Kaliningrad), Krasnaya Polyana (Krasnodar Krai, near Sochi), Siberian Coin (Altai) and Primorye (near Vladivostok). According to data from an industry association reported by Vedomosti, legal casinos received more than 2.1 million visitors in 2024, 10% more than the 1.9 million recorded in 2023. The Sochi casino was the busiest, with about 907,000 visits. Visitors aged 18 to 25 made up 21–24% of the audience in the main zones.

Online gambling

Online casino games on mobile devices

The online market is divided as follows:

Online sports betting is lawful when offered by an FNS-licensed bookmaker or totalisator that accepts bets through the single accounting centre. The sector is large. RBC reported that the ten largest bookmakers had combined turnover of RUB 1.7 trillion in 2024, up 43% from RUB 1.2 trillion in 2023. Bookmakers must also make targeted contributions to sport, set at 2.25% for 2026–2027 and due to rise to 2.5% from 1 January 2028, according to PRIME, and their advertising is restricted. On television, for example, it is limited to late-night slots or sports broadcasts.
Online casinos, slots and poker are prohibited by Article 5(3). There is no licence under which they can be offered to people in Russia.

Enforcement against illegal sites combines blocking, payment restrictions and data from the Regulator. In 2025 the ERAI reported that it had identified “226,092 domain names, page indicators and network addresses with unlawful gambling activity” and passed them to the Federal Tax Service (ERAI annual report 2025). Because illegal operators frequently move to new “mirror” domains, blocking reduces access but does not eliminate it. Article 5.1 is aimed at the payment side, restricting transfers to and from unlawful operators.

A licence from another country, a Russian-language interface or acceptance of rouble payments does not make an online casino lawful in Russia.

Position of players

The prohibitions in Federal Law No. 244-FZ, the blocking rules and the criminal provisions summarised above are directed at people who organise or facilitate gambling. They do not penalise individuals who place bets. In the sources reviewed for this guide we did not find a provision that imposes a fine or other penalty on a player merely for using an unlicensed online casino. Players are nonetheless exposed in other ways:

payments to unlawful operators are subject to the restrictions in Article 5.1, so transfers may be refused or blocked;
access to the operator’s site may be blocked at any time under Federal Law No. 149-FZ;
a player has no lawful operator, regulator or self-exclusion register to turn to if an unlicensed site withholds a deposit or winnings.

Lawful gambling is restricted to adults. Article 4 of Federal Law No. 244-FZ defines a gambling participant as a natural person who has reached the age of 18.

Taxation

Gambling operators pay a gambling tax under the Tax Code. Until the end of 2025 it was a regional tax under Chapter 29, and its revenue went to the budgets of the regions that levied it. Izvestia, citing FNS statistics, reported revenue of RUB 1.7 billion in 2023, up from RUB 1.6 billion in 2022 and RUB 1.1 billion in 2021. Federal Law No. 425-FZ of 28 November 2025 made the gambling tax a federal tax from 1 January 2026, now governed by Chapter 25.5 of the Tax Code (ConsultantPlus). The rates from that date are RUB 250,000 for each gaming table and RUB 15,000 for each slot machine. Bookmakers and totalisators pay 7% of a tax base made up of income from accepting bets and interactive bets, reduced by specified expenses. T—Zh described this base as the difference between stakes accepted and winnings paid, and reported that betting income also became subject to corporate profit tax at 25% in 2026. BIZNES Online, citing a Ministry of Finance official, reported that bookmakers were expected to pay just over RUB 60 billion under the new regime in 2026, compared with about RUB 1 billion in 2025.

Bookmakers also pay the targeted contributions to sport described above, which amounted to RUB 38.11 billion distributed in 2025. For players, T—Zh reported that from 1 January 2026 bookmakers must withhold personal income tax on all winnings, whatever their size, on the difference between the winnings and the stake. Previously this withholding applied only to winnings above RUB 15,000. Rules on other gambling winnings, such as those from casinos in the gambling zones, are not set out here because they could not be verified from an official source for this review.

Consumer protection and self-exclusion

Secure account login with a padlock and shield Russia introduced a national self-exclusion scheme through Article 5.2 of Federal Law No. 244-FZ, added by Federal Law No. 575-FZ of 29 December 2025 (Article 5.2). Its main features are:

an individual may apply to be entered in the “list of natural persons who have refused to participate in gambling”, either in person at a multifunctional public-service centre (MFC) or through the state services portal (Gosuslugi);
the minimum period is 12 months, and an application cannot be withdrawn before that period ends;
within five working days, gambling organisers must cancel pending bets and refund the stakes, pay out winnings on bets already settled, and block the person’s access both in venues and online.

The ERAI maintains the list. Its procedure for giving organisers, the single accounting centre and the supervisory authority access to the list was approved on 12 August 2026. The procedure is based on Ministry of Finance Order No. 56n of 29 April 2026 and provides round-the-clock access (ERAI access procedure). The register covers only licensed operators. Offshore online casinos are not connected to it. We did not identify a national gambling helpline in the official sources reviewed. General guidance is available in our responsible gambling guide.

Recent developments

Self-exclusion (2025–2026). The national register was created by the December 2025 amendment, and the procedure for operators to access it was approved in 2026.
Enforcement scale. The number of unlawful gambling addresses identified by the Regulator, more than 226,000 in 2025, shows the scale of the offshore and mirror-site problem.
Market growth. Licensed betting turnover has grown rapidly, and legal casino visits rose to over 2.1 million in 2024. The state has responded by increasing data collection and contributions to sport rather than by liberalising online casinos.
Tax reform (2026). From 1 January 2026 the gambling tax became a federal tax with new rates, and betting income became subject to profit tax. In a May 2026 interview with Kommersant, the head of the ERAI said that bookmakers’ tax burden had risen sharply and that marketing spending was being cut.
New gambling zone region (2026). Federal Law No. 124-FZ of 2 May 2026 added the Altai Republic to the list of regions in Article 9 where gambling zones may be created.
Contribution proposals. In April 2026 a group of State Duma deputies and a senator submitted a bill to raise bookmakers’ targeted contributions to sport to 10% from 2028 (PRIME). Its further progress could not be confirmed for this review.
Online casinos. In the same Kommersant interview, the head of the ERAI described the possible legalisation of online casinos as a necessary measure that the authorities were still working on. Article 5(3) of Federal Law No. 244-FZ continued to prohibit online casinos in the consolidated text reviewed for this guide.
Further amendments. Federal Law No. 244-FZ continues to be amended frequently. The last amendment recorded in the consolidated text at the time of review was dated 26 June 2026.

Sources and further reading

ConsultantPlus, Federal Law No. 244-FZ of 29 December 2006 “On State Regulation of Activities for the Organisation and Conduct of Gambling…” (consolidated text) (accessed 5 October 2026).
ConsultantPlus, Federal Law No. 244-FZ, Article 5: Basic requirements for the organisation and conduct of gambling (accessed 5 October 2026).
ConsultantPlus, Federal Law No. 244-FZ, Article 5.2: Refusal to participate in gambling (accessed 5 October 2026).
ConsultantPlus, Federal Law No. 244-FZ, Article 9: Gambling zones (accessed 5 October 2026).
ConsultantPlus, Federal Law No. 149-FZ “On Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information”, Article 15.1 (accessed 5 October 2026).
ConsultantPlus, Criminal Code of the Russian Federation No. 63-FZ of 13 June 1996 (edition of 4 August 2026).
Unified Gambling Regulator (ERAI), Official website (accessed 5 October 2026).
Unified Gambling Regulator (ERAI), Activity report for 2025 (2026).
Unified Gambling Regulator (ERAI), Procedure for access to the list of natural persons who have refused to participate in gambling (2026).
Vedomosti, Casino attendance in Russia exceeded 2.1 million people (2025).
RBC, Bookmakers’ 2024 results (2025).
Izvestia, The Russian budget received 1.7 billion roubles from the gambling business (2024).
TheBusinessYear, Russia’s mega casinos: Kaliningrad, Sochi, Altai and Primorsky Krai (2021).
United Nations General Assembly, Territorial integrity of Ukraine (A/RES/68/262) (2014).
ConsultantPlus, Federal Law No. 244-FZ, Article 4: Basic concepts used in this Federal Law (accessed 14 October 2026).
ConsultantPlus, Tax rates for the gambling tax: from 1 January 2026 (accessed 14 October 2026).
T—Zh, The president signed amendments to the gambling tax (2025).
BIZNES Online, State Duma adopts new tax on bookmakers (2025).
Kommersant, Interview with the head of the Unified Gambling Regulator (2026).
PRIME, Deputies propose raising bookmakers’ contributions to sport (2026).
Argumenty i Fakty, What became of Russia’s famous casino buildings (2019).

Casino listings for players in Russia

The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator is licensed in Russia. Online casino games are prohibited in Russia, and only FNS-licensed bookmakers and totalisators connected to the single accounting centre may lawfully accept online bets. The listings must not be read as an indication that playing at an online casino from Russia is lawful.