Russia’s online bookmakers are facing a civil war over their government’s efforts to dismantle their self-regulatory organizations (SRO).

This week, Russian’s regulated online sports betting market was thrown a wobbler after the Ministry of Economic Development announced it was preparing legislation to eliminate the three SROs – two sports betting, one sweepstakes – which were set up a few years ago as the government launched its new regulated online betting market.

The SROs were instrumental in setting up the two centralized payment hubs known as TSUPIS through which all betting transactions must be routed to comply with Russian law. But now that these systems are in place, the government claims that the SROs are duplicating the functions of the Federal Tax Service.

On Friday, Yuri Krasovsky, president of Russian bookmaker Liga Stavok and also of the First SRO of Russian Bookmakers, told Russian affiliate Bookmaker-ratings that the government’s plan to abolish the SROs was “a strange initiative” and the rationale behind this move “did not seem to us real and objective.”