{"id":263172,"date":"2023-03-07T15:00:59","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T21:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=263172"},"modified":"2023-03-08T13:01:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T19:01:01","slug":"flutter-pays-us-4m-to-avoid-pokerstars-russia-bribery-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/flutter-pays-us-4m-to-avoid-pokerstars-russia-bribery-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Flutter Pays $4M to US to Avoid PokerStars’ Russia Bribery Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dublin-based Flutter Entertainment<\/a> has agreed to pay the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) $4 million. That\u2019s to settle allegations that its flagship poker site, PokerStars<\/a>, violated US bribery laws by funneling around $8.9 million in payments to lobbyists in Russia.<\/p>\n

\"PokerStars,
Playing games: Putin\u2019s Russia, seen above, was strongly considering legalizing online poker starting in 2015, but it never happened, despite PokerStars\u2019 best efforts. (Image: Bloomberg<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The payments occurred between 2015 and 2020 when PokerStars was owned by Canadian company the Stars Group, which Flutter acquired in 2020. At the time, the Russian government was considering legalizing online poker.<\/p>\n

\n

Some of the money ended up funding New Year\u2019s gifts to Russian government officials. It was also used to reimburse payments made by one consultant to Roskomnadzor, the state agency responsible for administering internet censorship filters, according to the SEC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The company violated rules under US foreign bribery law, the SEC claimed. And it \u201cfailed to both devise and maintain a sufficient system of internal accounting controls over its operations in Russia with respect to third-party consultants, and to consistently make and keep accurate books and records regarding its consultant payments in Russia,\u201d according to the SEC.<\/p>\n

20 Million Players<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Kremlin made noise about legalizing and regulating online poker beginning in mid-2015. The country has an estimated 20 million online poker players, some already playing on PokerStars. At the time, operators considered Russia a “gray market,” where no regulatory or legal guidelines were available when it came to foreign-based online gambling sites.<\/p>\n

Russian Finance Ministry officials acknowledged that the ban on live poker games had driven the activity underground, and suggested that it would be better to license and tax it, along with the online variety.<\/p>\n

But it never happened. Despite PokerStars\u2019 best efforts behind the scenes, Russia legalized sports betting instead and cracked down harder on all other forms of online gambling.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Flutter, which pulled all its operations out of Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, neither admitted nor denied the SEC\u2019s allegations under the settlement.<\/p>\n

\u2018Legacy Issue\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In a statement, Flutter said it was pleased the matter had concluded, while emphasizing the alleged infractions took place under previous ownership.<\/p>\n

This is a legacy issue, related to a period prior to Flutter\u2019s ownership of the Stars Group,\u201d<\/strong> a spokesman said. \u201cFollowing our acquisition of TSG, we made significant changes to implement a framework of controls in line with Flutter\u2019s existing standards.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The SEC acknowledged Flutter had cooperated fully with its investigation by sharing the discoveries of its own internal investigation. It also encouraged parties outside SEC jurisdiction to provide evidence. SEC agreed that Flutter had improved its internal accounting controls and compliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dublin-based Flutter Entertainment has agreed to pay the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) $4 million. That\u2019s to settle allegations that its flagship poker site, PokerStars, violated US bribery laws by funneling around $8.9 million in payments to lobbyists in Russia. The payments occurred between 2015 and 2020 when PokerStars was owned by Canadian company […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":263173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83771,84511],"tags":[85380,82993,82991,82242,81755],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFlutter Pays US $4M to Avoid PokerStars' Russia \u2018Bribery\u2019 Charges<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Flutter Entertainment settles the US Securities and Exchange Commission over PokerStars\u2019 Russian bribery allegations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/flutter-pays-us-4m-to-avoid-pokerstars-russia-bribery-charges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flutter Pays US $4M to Avoid PokerStars' Russia \u2018Bribery\u2019 Charges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Flutter Entertainment settles the US Securities and Exchange Commission over PokerStars\u2019 Russian bribery allegations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/flutter-pays-us-4m-to-avoid-pokerstars-russia-bribery-charges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-07T21:00:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-08T19:01:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Putin.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"813\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/flutter-pays-us-4m-to-avoid-pokerstars-russia-bribery-charges\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/flutter-pays-us-4m-to-avoid-pokerstars-russia-bribery-charges\/\",\"name\":\"Flutter Pays US $4M to Avoid PokerStars' Russia \u2018Bribery\u2019 Charges\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/flutter-pays-us-4m-to-avoid-pokerstars-russia-bribery-charges\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/flutter-pays-us-4m-to-avoid-pokerstars-russia-bribery-charges\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Putin.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-07T21:00:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-08T19:01:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Flutter Entertainment settles the US Securities and Exchange Commission over PokerStars\u2019 Russian bribery allegations.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/flutter-pays-us-4m-to-avoid-pokerstars-russia-bribery-charges\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/flutter-pays-us-4m-to-avoid-pokerstars-russia-bribery-charges\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/flutter-pays-us-4m-to-avoid-pokerstars-russia-bribery-charges\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Putin.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Putin.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":813,\"caption\":\"Playing games: Putin\u2019s Russia was strongly considering legalizing online poker from 2015, but it never happened, despite PokerStars\u2019 best efforts. 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