Good News for Russian Online Poker

Last week we have seen a surprising report from the Russian Legal Information Agency that First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has instructed the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry for Economic Development and the Ministry of Justice to look into the possibility of legalizing online poker. The news came from a reliable but anonymous government source. We can already expect a development regarding the inquiry at the end of July this year. A source close to the inquiry told the newspaper Kommersant that the government is reconsidering the issue on request of the Poker Union president Kakha Kakhiani, who highlighted the success of Russian players in international poker competitions. Government will also profit if poker gets legalized. The additional tax revenues will go up to 5 billion rubles within three to four years. Polls indicate that 42 percent of Russians agree that poker is an intellectual game of skill, while 25 percent disagreed. 85 percent of online players believe that poker is an intellectual pastime, stated the Director General of the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre, Valery Fyodorov Generally, 52 percent respondents said that people should have the right to play poker if they wished, while 24 percent were against it. Asked the same question, 84 percent of internet users opted for the right to play. Poker was considered to be a sport in 2007, declared by a decree of the Federal Sports Agency. Two years later, thing have changed, and poker was categorized as gambling due to many poker clubs being illegal casinos.