Russia’s war on unauthorised online gambling operators has taken a new step, focusing on foreign and domestic social network accounts.Russian telecom watchdog Roskomnadzo has been adding a large number of unauthorised sites to its blacklist, which has now included a number of social media accounts belonging to online gambling sites.
Unexpected closures
The story came to light earlier this month when three betting sites found that their Twitter accounts had been suspended for reasons that were not explained at the time.Ultimately, it became apparent that this was part of Roskomnadzo’s strategy to enforce prohibitions on the promotion and facilitation of online gambling.Roskomnadzo has since admitted to warning Facebook, Twitter, and VKontakte, which is a Russian social media site, to suspend account that are seen to have in any way flouted the prohibition. 
Fonbet, Marathon, and 1xBet were among over 40 bookmakers who had a total of 250 accounts suspended on VKontakte alone.
Reactions
The efforts have not proved popular with everyone, and it has been suggested that Roskomnadzo are taking actions that look effective, but make little to no difference.Nikolai Oganezov, head of the Bookmakers Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO), claims that the purge of social media accounts may look good in the reports that Roskomnadzo send to the Russian government, but ‘the real informal sector it does not kill.”Instead of the chosen way to counteract unauthorised gaming sites, Oganezov suggests that the easiest and best way for Roskomnadzo to make a difference is to “create favourable conditions for legal business.”This would include imposing sensible tax rates, and making the complicated process of registering with the TSUPIS centralized payments hubs easier, while also allowing a certain level of market freedom to operators.However, for now, it seems that the social media crackdown will continue.