The Russian state of Duma on Friday passed a draft law regulating, for the first time, the lottery industry in Russia.
The bill, which passed in the Lower Chamber of Duma after a third reading, still has to be approved by the Parliament's Upper Chamber and the Federation Council. Above that, President Putin has to sign the bill into law. This is the seventh attempt to get a bill regulating the lottery industry in place.
Russia's population of 144.5 million spent nearly US$850 million on lotteries in 2002. More than 150,000 lottery "companies" sell tickets in the country.
According to TASS news agency, lotteries are divided into single, multi-game and combined lotteries as well as international, national, regional and local. There are both state and non-state draws.
The deputy head of the Duma's budgetary committee, Vitaly Shuba, who helped draft the bill, told the Moscow Times that the law is designed to bring order and "world-class standards" to the industry and create an "effective government mechanism for attracting voluntary funds from lottery participants."
The ultimate goal, Shuba told the newspaper, is to direct at least 10 percent of all lottery revenues to help fund "socially significant" projects for culture, sports, science and health.
The bill would create a state register of lottery operators, although it doesn't specify which body would be responsible for regulating and controlling the industry.
The Finance Ministry is currently issuing lottery licenses.
In the meantime, the Russian Gaming Business Development Association has been founded to promote and protect interests of the Russian gaming industry. The association was founded with a goal of creating a perfect gaming business environment, representing general interests of the state organizations and protecting the general interests of the players. The association shall commit itself to current legislation, articles of incorporation and bylaws.
According to ACM Consulting, the cellular phone market in Russia is 25.1 million (17 percent of the population). The country's top mobile operators are Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and Vimpelcom, which have an SMS exchange between subscribers of both companies across Russia.