FSB and Investigative Committee Detain 24 Members of Ring Handling Bets for 15 Online Casinos in Russia

Russia’s FSB and Investigative Committee have detained 24 members of an organized criminal group that processed bets for 15 online casinos operating outside Russian law, according to the FSB press service. For PSPs and acquiring teams, the useful detail is not the arrest count; it is the mechanics: payment flow, dropper entities, banking credentials, and crypto conversion all sat inside the same setup.

1. The case involves parts 1 and 2 of Article 210 of the Russian Criminal Code (organization of a criminal community and participation in it), part 3 of Article 171.2 (illegal organization of gambling), and part 6 of Article 187 (illegal circulation of payment instruments).
2. According to the FSB, the group built a service platform that processed operations for online casinos. In a video released by the FSB, an agency representative said the detained members handled illegal bet acceptance for 15 online casinos, including Pin-Up/Pinco, FreshCasino, Leon, MelBet, MostBet, PlayFortuna, Punch, RioBet, Shangrilla, WhyCasino, lwin, Azino, WinWin and 888Casino, and then converted the proceeds into cryptocurrency.
3. The financial unit allegedly handled illegal circulation of payment instruments, bought dropper entities, banking details and mobile network identifiers. The operational unit maintained contact with representatives of the online casinos and kept the payment services running. The accounting unit controlled the company’s crypto assets, distributed profits, paid salaries, and covered travel and owner expenses. The security unit handled concealment measures and internal protection.
4. Eight more people have been placed on the wanted list. Searches were carried out at the homes of OCG members and in four offices. The FSB video showed stacks of cash, luxury items and expensive cars found in those locations, and the property was seized.

For context, online casinos are banned in Russia; only bookmakers and totalizators can legally run gambling activity online. The Russian Finance Ministry estimated the market turnover at 1.7 trillion rubles for 2024. Kommersant later reported that the illegal online gambling segment exceeds 3 trillion rubles a year, based on a hundred active online casinos, and that Finance Minister Anton Siluanov sent Vladimir Putin a proposal to consider legalizing online casinos, including a payment model via the Unified Center for Accounting of Bets and a monthly tax of at least 30% of gross revenue net of paid winnings.