The Unified Regulator of Gambling (ERAI) allocated 16.5 billion rubles to Russian sports for the first quarter of 2024. This is evidenced by the published Telegram channel Establishment data on the number of targeted contributions from betting companies to sports.
According to the presented data, in 2020 (before the start of ERAI), the amount of transfers from betting companies to sports federations amounted to 2.3 billion rubles.
In 2021, the first year of ERAI’s activity, the regulator allocated 10 billion rubles to Russian sports, in 2022 – 13.8 billion rubles, and in 2023 – 19.1 billion rubles.
ERAI believes that the significant increase in targeted contributions is associated with the regulator’s active fight against the “gray” segment of the gambling market, as well as legislative initiatives regulating the industry.
The report notes that the main source of social tension in the gambling market is illegal gambling activities; we are talking about online casinos, illegal bookmakers and lotteries that use extremely aggressive advertising on the Internet, including popular bloggers.
The United Gambling Regulator recalled that it had repeatedly attempted to give ERAI the authority to directly block illegal sites. The organization believes that this would significantly strengthen the fight against the illegal sector.
“ERAI has all the necessary information systems in place and is ready to carry out the tasks immediately,” the regulator said in a statement.
Let us recall that the Unified Gambling Regulator was created in 2021. Its purpose is to increase extra-budgetary funding for sports through targeted deductions from gambling, countering organizers of illegal online gambling and strengthening general government oversight in this area.