Digest: Russia’s Rules of State Lottery Winner Identification and Other News

What is the concept of the lottery winner identification law adopted by the Russian State Duma? How much money did gambling businesses put into the public budget in the first month of the year? What event is expected at the end of March? These and other gambling news are revealed in our daily digest.

Russian Law “On Lotteries”

The State Duma has adopted the law in the third reading, introducing changes in the current procedure of national lottery organization. It is aimed at anti-money laundering.

According to the document, lottery operators are treated as organizations conducting operations with material valuables or other property. Lottery participants winning less than 15,000 RUB no longer require identification, save for cases stipulated by the law.

Besides, lottery operators can entrust holding full or simplified identification to a scope of persons specified in the law based on the agreement.

Russians won 26 billion RUB in 2019

Stoloto National Lottery reported that Russian citizens won more than 1 million RUB in the past year. The company sells 700+ thousand paper lottery tickets and 680+ thousand online ones daily. The total sales revenue was 57.9 billion. The lottery paid off 26.5 billion RUB in 2019.

Stoloto informed that the lottery activity provided the country’s budget with 2.7 billion RUB in 2019. In general, Russia obtained 13.3 billion RUB of lottery deductions.

Gambling taxes as significant budget replenishment

The Moscow Region budget website published a report showing that gambling tax revenues reached 6.5 million RUB as of February 1. An anticipated sum of budget receipts is 90 million RUB in 2020, 10 million RUB more than last year.

Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories received 35 million RUB and 3 million RUB.

Primorye’s budget was filled with 10 million RUB in January 2020. One expects at least 130 million RUB within the current year.

The Finance Department of the Primorye Territory stated that gambling taxes in 2019 were 98% of the pre-scheduled sum.

Casino Sochi to host a major poker tournament in March

PokerStars will hold a major poker tournament with a prize pool of 122 million RUB. The event will take place at Casino Sochi on March 20-29. High rollers will be awaited at gambling tables on March 27-29. A buy-in sum is 371,000 RUB. An additional prize for participants will be the drawing of the Platinum Pass premium package.

The event will involve Dmitry Guberniev, an ambassador of PokerStars Sochi. Guests will be able to enjoy concerts and entertainment programs.

Coronavirus pandemic to encourage the online gambling profit growth

H2 Gambling Capital asserts that the share of online casino revenues in the total gambling proceeds will increase by 1.3% in 2020 (from 13.4% in the past year to 14.7% this year). It is caused by coronavirus detected in 60+ countries in early March.

The income of land-based casinos in Macau decreased by 88% because of the two-week operation shutdown. The only South Korean casino, Kangwon Land, is closed as well. Two units of Venice-based Casino di Venezia – Cà Vendramin Calergi and Ca Noghera – also stopped functioning.

Specialists predict that despite the online gambling market growth, gambling house proceeds will fall by 8%. It is the second similar situation over the recent eight years.