The Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has instructed Google to remove all gambling advertising targeting Russians or face “administrative penalties” for breaching the country’s advertising standards.
The search engine giant has said it does not allow online gambling advertising to display on its Russian pages. FAS, however, complains that it has found them. Google has replied by blaming advertisers that use cyber-bots to bypass its search filters.
“Unfortunately, in some cases questionable advertisers attempt to find holes in our filters by various means and sometimes they succeed,” the company said. “We are constantly improving our system and working on the reliability of our filters.”
Russia has adopted a stringent policy of prohibition in regard to unauthorized Web gambling, and ongoing monitoring has resulted in the blocking of several unlicensed sites through regional ISPs and by preventing the processing of credit card payments.
In July the government created a blacklist of offending sites whose names include global giants such as Sportingbet, Party Poker and Poker Stars.
Russia’s national parliament, the State Duma, recently adopted a bill to impose criminal liability for organizing a gambling business in the country without official consent. The measure spells out fines of up to 500,000 rubles (US$8,350) for organizing illegal casinos, betting offices or totes, including online. Individuals found guilty could also face penalties ranging from compulsory community service to two-year prison terms. The bill also stipulates administrative liability for any legal entities with fines of up to 1 million rubles and confiscation of gambling equipment.
More recently, the ban has been extended to prohibit online poker outside of the four designated gaming zones created in 2009 when the Duma banished casinos from the country’s major cities at the behest of President Vladimir Putin. The bill, which similarly provides for fines and/or jail terms, has passed in the lower house of the parliament and now proceed to the upper house, the Federation Council.
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