Publication date: 16 December 2022
In December 2022, Russia was ranked among the top 15 major gambling markets in the world. This ranking was compiled by consulting company H2 Gambling Capital based on a comparison of GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue) of different countries. The top five biggest gambling markets in the world are the US ($119 bn), China ($70 bn), Japan ($50 bn), Italy ($20 bn) and the UK ($19 bn). Next in the ranking are Australia ($18 bn), Germany ($16 bn), Canada ($14 bn), France ($13 bn) and South Korea ($11 bn). Rounding out the top five are Spain ($10 bn), Singapore ($6 bn), the Philippines ($5 bn) and Russia ($4 bn). The Netherlands occupies the last place with $3 billion. Consequently, Russia has become one of the most important gambling countries.
- Read about how gambling is developing and how to promote betting and gambling in different countries in Reviews on 3S.INFO.
Online casinos in Russia: important things for players
It is officially forbidden to operate online casinos in Russia. However, Russians are free to play at any of the available sites. Although the state controls and periodically blocks illegal online gambling, there is a market of “grey” sites with slot machines, slots, card games and other gambling games.
ResearchView has conducted data analysis and presented its research on Russian casino market as of 2022. According to the experts, at the end of the year the players are about 20 million people in Russia. At the same time, every sixth inhabitant is a potential customer for gaming sphere.
Portrait of Russian casino players:
- gender: 80% men and 20% women. Women make bets more often while men spend more money.
- age: 51% are between 25 and 44 years old. The majority of VIP-clients are in this age category.
- professions: working class, middle managers and businessmen.
- residence: the majority of online casino players are from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Krasnodar.
- devices: 89% play from mobile devices and 11% from computers, 75% from Android and 25% from iOS.
- activity: in summer and spring the gambling sites are visited on Thursday and Friday from 16.00 to 22.00 (Moscow time), in autumn and winter the activity peak is on Friday evenings or weekends. On Monday they play and bet the least.
- time: 40% of users spend approximately 3 hours a day in online casinos, every second player spends about 28 minutes.
- interests: games, movies and TV series, news, cars, travel, real estate.
Besides, experts named the most popular casino brands among Russian players: Pokerdom, Friends Casino, Selector, Volna Casino, Play Fortuna, Joycasino and 1xSlots. Among the advantages of online institutions users named:
- the variety of games;
- availability of bonuses;
- the presence of a mobile app, as well as desktop version
- the ability to use cryptocurrency to fund accounts.
Active gambling zones in Russia in 2022
All land-based gambling activities are concentrated in special gaming zones. This is the only place where slot machine halls and casinos can operate legally.
As of the end of 2022, the active gambling zones in Russia are located:
- Altai Krai: Siberian Coin gambling zone
- Kaliningrad Oblast: Yantarnaya gambling zone
- Krasnodar Krai: Krasnaya Polyana gambling zone has been named ‘Best Entertainment Tourist Project’.
- Crimea: Zolotoy Bereg gambling zone.
- Primorsky Krai: Primorye gambling zone
Read more about legal casinos in Russia in the article How does the gambling market work in Russia?
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