The authorities have postponed the ban on betting for minors and debtors due to too heavy losses for the budget

Consideration of the bill banning bets for minors, incompetents and debtors was postponed to the fall at the request of the Ministry of Finance. The government considered the consequences too sensitive for the budget and the industry, writes Kommersant.

The document was submitted to the State Duma back in March 2024, but it did not advance beyond the first reading.

According to journalists, the bill will now be sent for revision: a working group will be created with the participation of officials, deputies, senators and market representatives.

The Ministry of Finance believes that the restrictions could affect up to 30% of bookmaker clients. This, according to the department, will result in budget losses - up to 27 billion rubles in taxes and another 14 billion rubles in contributions to sports.

The ministry's letter also talks about the risk of overloading government systems: we are talking about a possible 13 million requests per day to check players.

The Federation Council does not agree with such arguments. One of the authors of the initiative, Senator Alexander Trembitsky, said that “the delay is not entirely justified.” He believes that the restrictions could, on the contrary, push debtors to pay off their debts in order to resume the ability to place bets.

The Unified Gambling Regulator also does not see an urgent need for new rules: they recalled that verification of age, capacity and debts is already being carried out, and the bill itself largely duplicates the existing rules.

Market participants are tougher. Thus, the executive director of the First SRO of bookmakers, Oleg Davydov, said that the proposed measures are in principle unenforceable, since bookmakers do not have access to the current database of debtors.