Poker news tagged with 'vladimir putin'

The bill signed by Vladimir Putin over a year ago is now baring its fangs, with state-owned Sberbank now coldly rejecting transactions to offshore gambling sites and ewallets.

Russia's move to make banks and payment processing companies ban online gambling payments is now in full swing as state-owned and the biggest bank in Russia Sberbank has confirmed that it will no longer allow the processing of online transactions involving blacklisted offshore gambling websites.

Read more » Russian Banks Now Implement Payment Ban to Offshore Gambling Operators

On the 1st of July, 2009, a new law which forced casinos and slot machine halls to close down went into effect. The idea to this new law was brought to life during the time when Vladimir Putin was the president of Russia. Many casinos/slot machine halls already back then started to transform their premises into poker rooms, because poker was classed as a sport, and therefore it was legal to organize cash games and tournaments. But now, live poker is also banned in Russia and over 400,000 people that used to work at casinos, slot halls, and poker rooms, are now without jobs.

Read more » Poker is no longer a sport in Russia