Russia’s bookmakers are sounding the alarm as their government proceeds with plans to scrap their industry groups and dramatically hike their financial contributions to local sports. 

On Tuesday, Russia’s Duma legislative body approved first reading of Bill No. 1055657-7, which aims to scrap the bookmakers’ two rival self-regulatory organizations (SRO) in favor of a Unified Gambling Regulator overseen by the Ministry of Finance. This new agency will ensure adherence to bookmakers’ new mandatory contributions to Russian sports bodies. 

Those contributions could now be set at 1% of the turnover generated by each respective sport, quite the hike from the current 5% of betting revenue. Each bookmaker was originally supposed to ante up a minimum of RUB30m (US$407k) per quarter, but will now pay a minimum RUB5b ($68k) per quarter to each individual league/federation on whose matches they accept bets. (There are currently over 100 registered sports federations in Russia.)

The changes have alarmed Russian bookies, with First SRO president Nikolai Oganezov telling Kommersant that the bill appears to have “a goal of destroying a well-functioning and only positively proven mechanism.” Oganezov repeated criticisms that the bill’s authors – United Russia deputies Igor Stankevich and Viktor Deryabkin – are “completely unfamiliar with the realities” of Russia’s betting market.