Online casino deposits using Yandex Money

Online gambling is heavily restricted in Russia, with Yandex.Money providing one of the only safe and trusted ways for Russian players to deposit real money to an online casino. Read on to find out the Yandex brand, how Yandex.Money works and how you can use this payment method to fund your online casino account.

What is Yandex Money?

Yandex is a Russian tech company responsible for many Internet-related products and services, including Russia’s largest search engine provider. It is Russia’s unique answer to Google, providing such services as email hosting, cloud storage, GPS systems, web browsers and language translators. It also hosts its own online payment system, Yandex Money, which is an easy to use service which allows Russian customers to safely transfer funds online without revealing their bank account or credit card details. Payments can be made using Yandex Checkout, which works as a middle man to facilitate direct online payments, by using the Yandex Web wallet or Yandex pre-paid card.

According to a survey conducted in 2016, Yandex Money is now Russia’s largest electronic payment service. It aims to make online payments more convenient, secure and accessible for Internet users. Russian’s can pay for almost anything using Yandex Money, from utility bills, to online shopping, to funding an online casino or video game account. Money can be transferred via Yandex using a bank card, credit card, debit card or using cash at a Yandex Money payment kiosk, or which there are over 250,000 around the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). With a major focus on the Russian market, payments using Yandex Money may also available to customers around the CIS, including Kazakhstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Moldova and Belarus.

How to get a Yandex Money account

Russian players can open an account with Yandex Money directly through the official Yandex Money website. You can register using your social media details with Facebook or Twitter, or enter your email address, phone number and create a password to register for a new account. Once you have created an account, you can transfer money to your Yandex Web wallet from your bank account, bank card (Visa, MasterCard or Maestro supported), via your mobile app, or using a Visa Qiwi account.

Benefits of using Yandex for online casino deposits

Russia has incredibly strict laws against online gambling, with all online gambling services banned in the country since 2006. As online activity is so difficult to restrict, players have continued to ignore the laws and frequent offshore casino sites – a practice that continues to this day. The Russian government has put further restrictions in place, like requiring internet service providers to blacklist online gambling sites, but with the increasing popularity of VPN (virtual private network) services, this too is becoming difficult to police.

As a last-ditch effort to stop Russian’s from playing at foreign casino sites, the Russian government implemented a new bill in 2017 based on the USA’s Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), requiring Russian banks to block any payments made to an online gambling provider.

This is where Yandex Money has gained popularity and we are starting to see this payment service appear at several online casinos. Yandex is an independent service not controlled by Russia’s banks, presenting a loophole where users can transfer money to gambling sites without the risk of having those payments blocked by Russian banks.

It is important to note if you are from Russia and have decided to play for real money at an online casino site, this is entirely against the law and you do so at your own risk. Under Russian law, there is the possibility players found gambling at offshore casino sites can be fined, and although those chances are small, it is up to you to be aware of the risks applying to you if you choose to ignore the laws.

Which online casinos accept Yandex?

If an online casino accepts Russian players, it is also likely it will accept deposits using Yandex Money. Despite Russia’s strict laws against online gambling, there are still many foreign casino sites which continue to accept players from Russia. These online casinos are all licensed overseas by reputable gambling jurisdictions, where the casino must operate in strict accordance with local laws. Any online casino claiming to be licensed in Russia is a rogue operator and should be avoided like the plague.

For a full list of the safe online casino deposit options available to players around the world, read our guide to popular online casino payment methods and learn more about how each one works and where these deposit methods are accepted.

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