ISSUES OF IMPROVING CRIMINAL LEGISLATION TO COUNTERACT ILLEGAL GAMBLING ACTIVITIES IN THE INTERNET

The author of the article conducted analysis of domestic legislation that provides for criminal liability for illegal organization and gambling using the Internet on the basis of the law enforcement and judicial practice. Some topical problems in the organization of counteraction by the law enforcement bodies to illegal gambling activity and the current state regulation of gambling business are indicated. The evaluation of effectiveness of the preventive measures used in the Russian Federation to block illegal gambling content in order to prevent gambling in the Internet is conducted, including financial transactions of functioning online casinos. The issue of the practical expediency of assigning the computer equipment used for organizing the so‑called online casino to the category of gaming is described in details. The separate technical capabilities of modern gaming software complexes used in organizing and conducting illegal gambling games are described. Foreign criminal legislation has been analyzed, which provides for various types of liability for violations in the sphere of gambling; and separate legal norms have been singled out that can be implemented in the Russian regulatory and legal system. The author claims that the trends in development of the modern gambling technologies and imperfection of domestic regulators of gambling control activities will lead to further increase in the use of information and telecommunications networks, including the Internet, in illegal gambling activities. As a result, proposals are made to change the existing criminal law provision contained in Article 171.2 “Illegal Organization and Conducting of Gambling” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with respect to introducing a new type of criminal liability for “development, distribution, replication, installation or maintenance of software for organizing and (or) conducting gambling with the use of information and telecommunications networks”.

gambling, criminal liability, economic security, gambling establishments, online casinos, foreign legislation, blocking of Internet content, criminal proceeds, software, law enforcement practice.

Piven A. N. Issues of improving criminal legislation to counteract illegal gambling activities in the Internet // Business. Education. Law. 2018. No. 4 (45). Pp. 360–366. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2018.45.403.