Vladimir Putin Orders Study of Online Poker Regulation Vladimir Putin Orders Study of Online Poker Regulation
crschmidt, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License
Key Takeaways
  • Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has ordered a study to examine whether taxes on nationally regulated online poker could be used to fund national sports bodies, and particularly chess.
  • The initial proposals came from mining billionaire Vasily Anisimov a personal friend of Putin and leader of an association of state lotteries.
  • Putin has adopted an anti-gambling stance for several years, but now that Russian national finances have been badly affected by the sanctions imposed over the Ukraine conflict, the taxes from regulated online poker are beginning to look attractive.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has ordered a study to examine whether taxes on nationally regulated online poker could be used to fund national sports bodies, and particularly chess.