Russia has warned the folks at Google that they will face administrative penalties if they can’t prevent Russian citizens from viewing online gambling advertisements. On Thursday, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) reported that a Google user complained after encountering a forbidden gambling advert while using Google’s search engine. Google defended itself by saying “questionable advertisers attempt to find holes in our [AdWords] filters by various means and sometimes they succeed.”
While Google was vowed to work to improve its defenses, the FAS warned that it was preparing an administrative offence case against Google. The likely result is a fine of between RUB 100k and 500k (US $1.8k – $9k). However, should Google fail to up its defences, the perennially shirtless Vladimir Putin reserves the right to fly to California and poke his nipples into the eyes of Russian-born Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
POLISH BOOKIES SAY HURT THE FOREIGNERS, NOT THE LOCALS
Licensed bookmakers in Poland have spoken out against their government’s plan to put gamblers in jail if they patronize unauthorized international online betting sites. Zdzislaw Kostrubala, who represents the Association of Bookmaker Employers and Employees, told the local Rzeczpospolita newspaper that the government should be getting to ‘the source of the problem” rather than “tackling ordinary citizens.”
There are currently just four Polish-licensed online operators and Kostrubala’s group is calling for the government to institute site-blocking of everybody else. Kostrubala also wants the government to lower taxes on local operators so that they can offer a product that can compete with the international sites. The Polish online gambling market is believed to be worth 5b zloty (US $1.5b) and estimates are that 90% of Polish online betting transactions are with unauthorized operators.
LATVIA ADDS 74 MORE DOMAINS TO ONLINE GAMBLING BLACKLIST
Over in Latvia, the Lotteries and Gambling Supervision Inspection has added 74 new names to its online gambling blacklist so far this month. The latest additions include names like William Hill, Betsafe and EuroCasino but primarily consist of derivatives of just four operators: Casinomaxi.com, Casinometropol.com, Playmillion.com and Thepalacegroup.com. The latest additions bring Latvia’s naughty list up to 410 names, just a few billion less than the list Santa’s preparing as we speak.
