QIWI officially refuses to support international bookmaker’s transactions
On January 21 Qiwi announced the shutdown of any transactions to/from bookmaker’s resources with the help of Qiwi cards. The information was published on the official web site. As for the reason behind such changes, Qiwi representatives mention the amendments in the Federal Lottery Law. The new policy will most probably affect all popular online providers.
National financial institutions have already been shutting down all payments to/from online gambling facilities including foreign providers starting from Autumn 2018. Savings Bank of the Russian Federation was the first organization to ban money transfers in favor of online casinos. Later on, many other financial institutions supported this initiative.
The only bank that carried on with the liberal policy towards such transactions was VTB. However just a week ago it announced the official shutdown of the casino payments. With the official statement of Qiwi about the ban of such operation, the last hope to make any money transfers has been completely lost.
Early restrictions on the above-mentioned payments were introduced back in November 2017. According to the latest amendments, financial organizations have to legitimate reasons to decline a money transfer:
- Merchant Category Code(MCC) - 7995.
- The web site is under the direction of the tax bureau.
The second section refers to one single service - Victory777 N.V. - representative of the famous Azino777 (Three Axes). Truth be told the federal legislation doesn’t really affect the operation of Azino777. The brand has already introduced several transaction methods that can easily abide by the restrictions in Russia.
Taking into account the fact that illegal online casinos focus on attracting players from Russia in the first place, it’s expected that they will be creating new methods of cashouts/deposits.
Back in 2018 statutory bans didn’t affect online casinos that much. Federal Supervision Agency placed a ban on Azino777. However, Three Axes managed to be on the sort-list of online-video advertising providers. Nothing can stop users from getting their no deposit sign-up bonus at 777.
International gambling providers will nevertheless face problems. Providing that they focus on Russian-speaking players, they will need to invent new payment methods. Which means that foreign internet casinos will soon improve their transaction policy.
Luckily enough players from Canada do not suffer any kind of restrictions or bans. They can easily play for CAD in all popular online casinos.