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Dmitry Medvedev instructed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to submit proposals within a two-week period to improve legislation to discourage illegal gambling.
Appeals to the President by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and St Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko emphasise the dangers of manipulative actions designed to bypass the Federal Law On Lottery Games. In their opinion, inadequate legislation regulating the relations arising from the organisation and conduct of lotteries deprives controlling bodies of the ability to engage in routine monitoring of gambling businesses.
In particular, technical regulations for lottery equipment have not been adopted. As a result, the equipment has not been registered and, in turn, related activities are not regulated by public bodies.
According to the Federal Law On Lottery Games, lotteries should be examined not more than once every three years to see if their circumstances comply with the legislation of the Russian Federation. At the same time, part 4 of article 7 of the same law stipulates that the maximum duration of stimulus lotteries may not exceed twelve months. In this way, all stimulus lotteries and 4 out of 5 national lotteries authorized by Russia's Federal Tax Service were ineligible for routine monitoring in 2011.
Another problem is the lack of adequate legal regulation of the responsibility for illegal gambling activities, as well as the lack of provisions in the Russian Criminal Code and Code of Administrative Offences explicating liability for breaches of the regime governing the organisation and conduct of gambling.
March 5, 2011