Sixteen sentenced
Reports of a surge in gambling related crime in a Russian Integrated Entertainment Zone (IEZ) were reinforced this week after a court in Vladivostok sentenced 16 members of an illegal casino network to jail.
unnamed mastermind of the operation
Pervomaisky District Court’s decision included a suspended three-year jail term for the unnamed mastermind of the operation in the Russian Far Eastern IEZ.
The other network members were jailed from six months to two years, with the suspects found guilty of the “illegal organization and conduct of gambling committed by an organized group on an especially large scale.”
Long-established network
Prosecutors say that the gang was secretly operating underground casinos in Vladivostok since 2016 until a coordinated police raid in late 2024 flushed out its illegal casinos on the streets of Lugovaya, Sportivnaya, Zhigura, and Tramvaynaya.
Police estimated the group’s operations generated revenues of ₽375m ($4.9m). In addition to seizing gambling equipment at the gang’s casinos, police also impounded vehicles worth ₽2.8m ($36k)
Vladivostok is situated in a prime gambling location bordering China and close to Korea and Japan. Little surprise there is a surge in betting-related crime across the IEZ and the wider Primorsky Krai region, with police arresting a man a few weeks ago for stealing money from a relative in Vladivostok before losing it to the city’s illegal casinos.
Wild, wild east
Vladivostok is one of a small cluster of IEZs in Russia where casinos can operate legally, with Siberia being another. There are reports Siberia is becoming another illegal gambler’s paradise, backed by a trial that started in November where 37 people were accused of illegally operating gambling facilities outside the IEZ.
According to Russian media, security agents in the Siberian cities of Krasnoyarsk, Kansk, and Achinsk have also uncovered an underground casino ring that operated “under the guise of registered bookmakers.”
The busts come in a week Russian Orthodox Church leaders slammed Finance Minister Anton Siluanov’s plans to legalize and tax online casinos in Russia. Siluanov wrote a letter to President Vladimir Putin stating that legalizing the vertical would boost state revenues by ₽100bn ($1.3bn).
