Reports RUSSIA - MARKET UPDATE


From April 1, Rokomnadzor also now requires technology companies who sell smartphones to prompt users to download government approved apps for search engines, maps and payment systems. Te state has been actively developing systems for content filtering with black lists, fines or even jail sentences for offending content posted online.


Tere has been huge controversy and protests over the media blackout. Twitter now has 700,000 monthly active users in Russia, just a fraction of the 68.7 million in the US, for example.


amendments that extended his own personal term limits until 2036 (when he’ll be 84). Vladamir Putin was re-elected in 2018 with 77.5 per cent of the votes.


CASINO MARKET


During the communist era, gambling was almost entirely illegal. In the late 1980s the laws were relaxed and slots and casinos began to emerge. Gambling was legalised in 1989 and EGMs arrived in tourist hotels whilst the first Soviet casinos opened in Tallinn and Moscow.


In the 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet


Union, the sector mushroomed. By 2006 it is said there were over 6,300 licensed operations, the majority of which located in the two federal cities – Moscow and Saint Petersburg. By the mid-2000s there were 70,000 plus slots, 58 casinos and 2,000 gaming halls in Moscow alone.


Te market was out of control with a gaming hall every 100m and only one in three of these actually legal, whilst corruption and organised crime was rampant. Underage gambling was an issue and it was stated that up to 1.5 million people were gambling in Moscow every day.


Te market was out of


And with elections due later this year, there is little respite expected. Te next Duma elections must be held by September this year after a rocky 12 months in politics. In January this year ex-President Dmitry Medvedev resigned as Prime Minister, a position he had held for eight years, and was replaced by Mikhail Mushustin. Medvedev was a key member of Putin’s inner circle and tarnished by allegations of corruption and scandal.


Te resignation led to rumours that President Putin might also resign, however, instead he announced a series of constitutional


P64 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS


control with a gaming hall every 100m and only one in three of these actually legal, whilst corruption and organised crime was rampant. Underage


gambling was an issue and it was stated that up


to 1.5 million people were gambling in Moscow every day.


To arrest the situation a federal law was introduced in 2006 (and into full effect in 2009), which banned practically everything. Law No. 244-FZ ‘On state regulation of activities for the organisation and conduct of gambling activities and on Amendments to some Legislative Acts in the Russian Federation,’ prohibited EGMs and casinos throughout the territory except for four special gambling zones.


Rules for casinos include a minimum of 90 per cent payout for slots, whilst the number of slots in a gaming hall cannot be less than 50 in an area of at least 100sq.m. A casino must have at


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