Above we composed an overview of RU casinos with play for free, no deposit bonuses, free coupons etc.. Almost all the above mentioned casinos have nodeposit tournaments. All these casinos are mobile to play on iphone, windows phone, Android, etc. Russian online casinos are designed according to European standards. They offer all the classic casino games, such as Roulette, Blackjack, Poker and slots. Payment processors like Qiwi and Skril have been blacklisted.
Most forms of gambling – both online and offline – are banned in the country, with the exception of four designated government zones. It is very difficult to access online casinos in Russia, due to blocks on their websites. There is a blacklist but not for all casinos. The blacklist goes further than just blocking gaming providers, and even blocks the domains of websites that simply carry information related to gambling. Russians can also play online on 'unlicensed’ sites. While betting at unlicensed sites may be technically against the law, there appears to be no interest in prosecuting players. Players in the country have access to the majority of software providers. Microgaming slots seems the most popular.
Russia has a huge poker community. Likewise, with the popularity of slot machines in the country, there are still plenty of online casinos that accept Russian players. There are many excellent Russian online casinos! Besides this, the number of people regularly betting in Moscow alone was estimated to be up to 1.5 million.
Gambling in Russia has been a huge problem for the government since the beginning of the 21th century with approximately 500 registered gambling companies. In 2002, the Federal Sports Agency (FSA) was granted the right to issue gambling licenses. A new law came into effect in 2009. As a result, the Russian authorities closed down all casino gambling operations outside the four gambling zones overnight, so the current situation is that casino gambling in Russia is only allowed in these four regions.
In February 2015 the Russia’s media authority announced that it would block domains of blacklisted online gambling websites, not only Russian operatprs but international operators too, so by the end of October 2015, dozens of gambling sites became unavailable, including global operators, such as 888 Poker, Betway, Bwin.party, JackpotCity, Ladbrokes, Pinnacle Sports, Titan Poker and Unibet.
Russian laws also impose a small fine on players that participate in gambling activities conducted by unlicensed operators, both online and offline. However, currently there is little to no risk involved in playing on foreign online platforms from Russian, as authorities aim their efforts at gambling providers and organizers, not on players.
Update from January 2019 concerning rather surprising news: Google has agreed to block gambling websites from its search results in Russia language casinos and/or Online casinos for Russia. It seems it has been fined $7,500 by the Russian regulator, being 'Roskomnadzor' the Russian telecom watchdog. There are rumours that last year (2018) the regulator blocked 14,500 online gambling websites. Google initially refused to filter their search results according to Russian regulation, and for that reason they were fined by the Russian watchdog.
In a surprise move it has agreed to pay the (small) fine and has begun updating its search results to exclude the gambling websites, as requested by Russia. The fine handed down to Google was smaller than the maximum amount permitted under Russian law and it is still unclear as to why Google agreed, probably it is related to the possibility that Google itself could be blocked if it didn’t abide to the rules and regulations set by the Russian government. The good news is that some gambling related links still remain on Google’s platform in Russia.