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Gambling Zones in Russia

Russia, one of the most populous countries in the world, also has one of Europe’s biggest gambling centers within its borders: Sochi. The host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics has held many major poker tournament series so far World Poker Tour events. They are the center of one of 4 designated “gambling zones” where casinos are legally allowed to offer real money games of chance.

Online Gambling in Russia

Online gambling was completely prohibited for a long time, due to the passing of a 2006 restrictive law. A 2014 law, however, made the first stride towards the legality of online gambling, with the recognition of so-called “interactive bets” as legal. This essentially covered all licenced sports betting over the internet.

While not specifically mentioned, this new legal development had a positive effect on online poker as well. Poker games, especially Texas Hold’em, grew a lot in popularity in recent years. More and more Russians wish to play online poker with friends or against strangers for real stakes. This card game enjoys a de facto legal exemption – while not specified by law, based on the authorities’ lack of action, it is believed to have a “game of skill” exemption from the online gambling ban.

That is despite the fact online poker hasn’t officially been declared legal – only sports betting got the green light from the Kremlin. Foreign gambling sites’ URL’s are sometimes blocked by the Federal Tax Service, which also serves at the Federation’s gambling regulator. 

However, there’s nothing stopping the Russian people from playing some online poker if they wish to. They’re not in any danger of prosecution – no person was ever convicted for simply playing cards on the internet. There are even some poker sites specifically geared towards Russian players, meaning using the Russian language and the Russian currency as a default, such as Pokerdom and GGPokerOK.

Famous Russian Poker Players

Timofey Kuznetsov, better known as his online moniker Trueteller, is one of the greatest online cash game players in the world, both in Texas Hold’em and mixed games. Anatoly Filatov is a poker pro who has $5.172 million in live tournament cashes. Igor Kurganov has won even more, $18.707 million, in live tournaments. He also took down the $10K Tag Team NLHE event at the 2017 WSOP, forming a duo with his famous poker girlfriend Liv Boeree.

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Other Poker & Gambling News in Russia

• 2021/08/31 – Artur Martirosian wins $1.4 Million at Super High Roller Bowl Europe – Russian player Artur Martirosian defeated David Peters at the 2021 Super High Roller Bowl Europe $100,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event. He had already won two major events this year.
• 2021/08/31 – Radmir Sadirov wins $169,111 at the WSOP Online – Russian player Radmir Sadirov won against Joao Vieira, Daniel Dvoress, and Sam Greenwood and got his first gold bracelet at the 2021 World Series of Poker Online $5,000 buy-in short deck championship.
• 2021/08/04 – Alexey Ignatyev wins multiple events in Russia – This week, Alexey Ignatyev won three times at the Russian Poker Tour, which was taking place in Minsk. He won the Russian Poker Open for $4,550, then the Under Pressure event for $3,400 and finally $3,495 at the Progressive Knockout event.
• 2021/08/04 – Aleksey Savenkov wins $141,384 at the GGPoker WSOP – Playing along 924 other players at the $1,050 GGMasters High Roller, Aleksey Savenkov managed to turn his $1,050 into $141,384. Another player, Stoyan Obreshkov, came in second with $106,023. All the other players won less than $100,000.