Putin Was Proposed To Legalize Online Casinos To Replenish The Budget For The War
- 27.01.2026, 10:52
Russian Finance Minister Siluanov wrote a letter to the dictator.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to legalize online casinos. This idea was presented to the head of the Finance Ministry in a letter, two sources familiar with the document told Kommersant. According to them, Siluanov proposes to lift the ban on the operation of online casinos, to create a Unified Betting Accounting Center similar to bookmakers and to introduce a tax for such organizations in the amount of at least 30% of revenue.
The tax will have to be paid monthly, and it will be administered by the Unified Gambling Regulator (URAI). As a result, the Ministry of Finance estimates that the federal budget revenues from this will amount to about 100 billion rubles annually. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance considers it necessary to prohibit access to online casinos for citizens under the age of 21, as well as to empower the ERAI to prevent gambling addiction. In turn, the government will take additional measures to block illegal online casino sites and ban money transfers in their favor.
The volume of deposits of illegal online casinos in Russia is currently estimated at $2 billion per month, says the president of BC "Liga Bet" Yuri Krasovsky. "This is a loss of targeted deductions of 2.25% of deposits, that is $600 million a year, or about 50 billion rubles, which could have been directed to the development of national, children's and youth and mass sports in Russia," Krasovsky said.
The implementation of the initiative to legalize online casinos should take into account and level out the social risks associated with this decision, in particular the development of ludomania, said the executive director of the Association for the Protection of the Rights of Participants in Gambling and Lotteries Vasily Riy. "Legalization of online casinos is one of the tools to counteract the illegal market, but not the only one. The practice of legalization in many countries in various forms shows that in the absence of proper state control the effect can be the opposite," the expert noted.
The Finance Ministry's proposal came against the backdrop of rising costs of the war in Ukraine and a general increase in the tax burden. According to the budget law, in 2026 the federal treasury should collect an additional 3.2 trillion rubles in taxes to increase revenues to the planned 40.28 trillion rubles.
The Finance Ministry expects to collect 1.2 trillion of this amount by increasing VAT to 22% - a record rate for Russia since 1992. Another 200 billion rubles to the budget should bring a radical tax reform for small businesses, which reduces to 20 million rubles the annual revenue limit, allowing them to work under the simplified taxation system - that is, without paying VAT. Finally, from September 1, a "technological levy" on machinery and electronics is introduced, from which the government expects 200 billion rubles in additional revenues over three years.
The next tax increase, according to the Finance Ministry's calculations, should reduce the budget deficit, which in 2025 is 5 times higher than the original plan and amounted to 5.7 trillion rubles. This year, the "hole" in the treasury should be reduced to 3.8 trillion rubles, or 1.6% of GDP.