Russian anti-gambling center opposes legalizing online casinos, citing addiction risk and 15 million-strong gambling audience

A Russian organization focused on gambling addiction has come out against bringing online casinos out of the shadows, arguing that tax forecasts should not outweigh the risk of more people developing gambling problems. For PSPs and acquirers, the key point is simple: if online casino regulation moves forward, the compliance, payment-blocking, and responsible gambling requirements will matter as much as the license itself.

1. The organization says slots are the fastest product when it comes to triggering addiction. According to its experts, problems appear after about one year of regular play, compared with around 3.5 years in other formats.
2. It cites pooled data from 68 countries showing that the share of addicted players among online casino users is about 15.8%, roughly 2.5 times higher than among bettors. That gap is the core of its argument against treating casino and betting as interchangeable verticals.
3. In jurisdictions where online casinos are legal, casino players account for up to 70% of calls to helplines, according to the center. In other words, once the vertical is regulated, the support burden shifts sharply toward casino activity.
4. The organization estimates that Russia’s gambling audience at least tripled over seven years, from 5 million people in 2018 to 15 million in 2025, including betting, land-based gambling zones, and video games with gambling elements. It also says the number of people with pathological gambling addiction in the country is above 400,000.
5. It rejects the claim that legalization on its own will push out illegal operators. The center says underground activity has remained in place in some countries even after regulation launched, and proposes a different playbook: cut off illegal payment channels, speed up website and ad blocking, expand self-exclusion tools, and fund addiction treatment through levies on the legal industry.

For high-risk payment providers, the practical takeaway is not philosophical, it is operational: any move toward online casino legalization in Russia would almost certainly come with tighter monitoring of merchant traffic, stronger controls around illicit payment routing, and more pressure to prove that payments can be used to both process and restrict gambling spend.