Online Poker Rooms Banned in Russia Still Accept Players

Russian internet providers started to ban online gambling sites but to no avail.

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While online gambling is illegal in Russia, internet providers had previously taken no steps to block similar content. The issue took legal course in 2012, when prosecution tried to make Rostelecom ban illegal gambling sites.

The District Court, however, ruled that the company has no such obligations, as providing access to online gambling was not illegal, unlike providing the games themselves. The Court of Appeals, however, remedied this decision, stating that providing access to illegal information and services is clearly unlawful. As a result, providers are bound to block all illegal content, including online gambling, or they lose their licences and will be blacklisted by the Ministry of Justice.

One of the firsts to implement the ban was also one of the largest providers in the country, Beeline. The domains have been removed from the DNS of the provider; nevertheless, Russian players kept reporting that rooms can be accessed via open DNS servers, including Google’s Public DNS. The Russian state has no means to exert control over such services.

Recently, more and more providers have started to ban online poker rooms, including PokerStars, Ladbrokes, Unibet and Betway – see the full backlist here [4].

Russian players apparently need not worry anyway: they still have access to the rooms, as is apparent from the following notification, sent out by PokerStars according to FlopTurnRiver:

“Thank you for contacting PokerStars, and for expressing your concern.

We are aware of the recent situation in Russia. At this time we do not believe this changes our ability to offer services to Russian players. As such our operations continue as usual.

We operate under several licenses issued to us in various jurisdictions and we always abide by all relevant laws and regulations.

We will communicate all necessary information to our players should changes take place in any jurisdiction which might affect players directly. We can assure you that your funds are always safe with us and that they will be made accessible to you should you ever want to withdraw them.

Our terms and conditions make it clear that our services are not for use in jurisdictions where it is illegal to do so, but the measures taken by Roskomnadzor, and the resulting action with the Common Registry of Banned Websites that prevents access to our PokerStars.COM website, does not affect ability to continue playing at PokerStars.

We trust this alleviates your concerns, and thank you for choosing PokerStars.”