Official language: Russian
Population: 142,008,838
Currency: Rouble (RUB)

Current Exchange Rate
1 EUR = 43.4766 RUB
1 GBP = 47.2465 RUB
1 USD = 28.9767 RUB

Poker in Russia
Poker in the Russian Federation has been a contentious topic in recent years. In 2006, President Vladimir Putin submitted a bill that moved all gambling halls, casinos, and slot machines in the country to four specially-designated gambling regions. At the time, there were no poker halls in the country – all poker was played in casinos. The new law meant poker would no longer be legal to play outside of these special gambling zones.

Then in March of 2007, the Russian Sports Minister classified poker tournaments as an official sports competition instead of gambling. This meant that poker was suddenly exempt from the 2006 laws, so poker clubs quickly began to emerge. In July of 2009, however, this decision was reversed. Russian officials called the 2007 ruling an "error", instantly nullifying 70 new poker licenses. Today, poker is considered to be gambling, and is restricted to the country's four gambling zones.

Online Poker in Russia
Online poker, however, is not growing nearly as quickly as offline poker games in Russia. The reason for this is not because internet poker is less popular, but because the laws surrounding online gambling are very unclear. At the moment, Russian internet poker is not illegal, but the government does not give licenses to companies which would let them operate online poker sites within the Russian Federation.

Players who want to enjoy Russian poker online must play at foreign internet poker rooms. These are hosted offshore, and cannot be shut down by the Russian government. While many of these are international casinos and poker halls run in English, a few of the larger ones do cater to a Russian audience, and offer Russian translations of their whole site. These translated sites are few and far between, but they get the job done.