The government will not yet impose on bookmakers the functions of a tax agent, ERAI expanded the list of federations for additional funding, and the new order of bookmaker deductions and increased rates may be approved as early as December. Meanwhile, the Russian bank conducted the best financial investigation in the gambling sphere, bookmakers note pleasant trends in the current World Cup, and the Russian national team will perform at the world cybersport championship. These and other news of the gambling industry – in the digest of Login Casino on November 26 – December 2.
The provisions concerning changes in the taxation of winnings in sweepstakes, bookmaker’s offices and lotteries have disappeared from the draft law on changes to the Tax Code, which has recently been actively discussed in the Government. Earlier it was supposed that from the moment the Draft Law came into force gambling operators would act as a tax agent for any winnings of their clients. Under the current law, bookmakers, totalizators and lotteries transfer tax to the treasury for the client only when the player’s winnings exceed 15 thousand rubles.
The market was against such changes. The First Betting Organization, the Association for the Protection of the Rights of gamblers, the subcommittee of CCI RF on the activities of bookmakers and betting companies have submitted alternative proposals, among which – full exemption of bookmakers from the performance of functions of a tax agent. Even the Ministry of Economic Development said that such regulations would only harm the market. As a result, in the course of the dispute resolution procedure, the norms concerning the work of bookmakers, lotteries and totalizators were excluded from the draft law under discussion.
During November the single regulator expanded the list of sports federations which receive additional funding at the expense of bookmakers’ fees. The corresponding agreements were signed in November by EPAI with the All-Russian Organization for Sports Knife Throwing and the Nordic Combat Federation. Thus, the pool of sports federations supported by the betting business reached 119.
According to the news portal Izvestia in December the State Duma will pass in the first reading a bill establishing new rules for the distribution of targeted betting contributions and gradually increasing their amount. According to the developed document, children’s and youth and mass sports will receive 30% of bookmaker deductions, as opposed to the 20% that the direction receives now. The remaining 70% instead of the current 80% will go to the development of professional sports. In the first version of the bill 25% of the total amount of earmarked allocations were supposed to go to children’s and youth sport.
The size of the deductions themselves will also change. It is assumed a gradual increase in the rate for the betting business from 1,5% to 2% in the period from 2023 to 2030.
This bill, among other things, would strengthen controls over the use of earmarked betting deductions. The Association has submitted a number of additions to this issue, proposing:
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oblige sports federations to publicly disclose information on the volume of contributions received and the purposes for which they are spent, not once a year, as is currently the case, but quarterly;
vest the Ministry of Sports with powers that will help strengthen control over the use of targeted contributions, including giving the agency the right to check compliance with rules for spending targeted funds;
give up creating a special commission to control the use of betting contributions and give these powers to the Ministry of Sports.
For its part, the Ministry of Finance proposed to finalize the bill taking into account the suggestions of the association and submit it to the State Duma in the first reading with the comments already taken into account.
The post of head of the main state postal company will be given to Mikhail Volkov, who now heads the company Sports Lotteries, which manages the National Lottery. The previous general director of Russian Post left the post, citing personal motives. However, the press has learned that there may be a connection between his departure from the post and the unsatisfactory financial performance of the state postal company: in just six months, Russian Post’s loss increased sixfold to 19.5 billion rubles.
First place in the international competition of financial institutions of the Eurasian Group in the field of combating money laundering was taken by VTB Bank. The bank’s compliance division took part in the competition by exposing a complex financial scheme involving the transfer of money to an illegal gambling company. In the revealed case the unlicensed online casino operated under the guise of an organization that conducted pseudo-accounts for online acquiring for video and computer games.
Alexei Babichev, PR-director of BK PARI, shared his opinion. According to the expert the tournament is going very well for the betting shops: the two defeats of the favorites, not very productive matches and even four draws with a zero score will certainly play into the hands of betting shops. The most lucrative match for PARI was Argentina’s defeat against Saudi Arabia. Seven hundred and twenty five hundred and twenty fourteen hundred and twenty five hundred and twenty five hundred and twenty five hundred and twenty five hundred bets have been placed by the likes of Australia versus France (9.25% of all bets); Saudi Arabia versus Argentina (8.25%); Serbia versus Brazil (8.2%). Evening matches get more bets than day games. Alexei Babichev also said that at this stage in the World Cup-The office paid two largest winnings: Br2.045 million at a bet of Br801.996 thousand and Br2 million at a bet of Br1 million.
These data were provided by analysts of Barclays Plc. This amount is 65% higher than the volume of bets on the Russian Championship. The sharp increase in the volume of bets in comparison with the previous World Cup is caused by several factors:
the popularization of online betting, which occurred back during the pandemic;
the convenient timing of the World Cup-2022, as previously the games were held in summer, during the vacation season.
Bookmakers are taking about $400 million in bets on each game in the group stage. The playoffs are expected to raise that amount to $1 billion. In the finals, total betting volume is expected to exceed $2.5 billion.
Experts note that regular draws and unpredictable results of games allow betting shops to get good margins as well
The International Federation of eSports allowed Russian cyber athletes to participate in the World Championship, but only under a neutral flag. The competition will be held December 1-12 in Indonesia. Opponents of Russians in the discipline Dota 2 in Group C will be teams from Syria, Colombia, Tunisia, Poland, and Bulgaria. The Russians will also compete in CS:GO (Group C) against teams from Chile, India, and Tajikistan. The championship prize fund is $ 500,000
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