The scandal around the Russian betting company "1xBet" continues: International investigative journalists from InformNapalm community found out that this gambling operator from the aggressor country may be an agent of the FSB and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, according to Publika.md.
At the same time, the purpose of the activity in Ukraine is allegedly to recruit agents, as well as to collect and transfer the personal data of ukrainians to their "curators" under the guise of identifying the players of the betting platform. And this is despite the fact that the Law of Ukraine on Gambling directly obliges to carry out identification of the person "1xBet". It should be noted that every tenth site of sports betting, illegally operating in Moldova, is also associated with the Russian company "1xBet".
According to a new investigation by the international community InformNapalm, the russian company "1XBet" is more interested not in money, but in the desire to obtain the personal data of ukrainians. In addition to those who just occasionally gamble, the company has access to a database of people with financial problems who are very easy to recruit agents on the ground and use them for the needs of the FSB and the GRU.
The authors of the investigation explain that the permission and, moreover, the obligation to collect personal data of players, "1xBet" received along with a license to operate in Ukraine. Thus, the Law "On State Regulation of Organization and Conduct of Gambling" in Article 16 requires operators to "ensure the identification of the player and the visitor in the gambling establishment and the identification of the player when carrying out activities on the Internet." And already in Article 17, it indicates that "in order to identify a player on the Internet, the organizer of gambling has the right to request additional documents from the player in accordance with the rules of the organizer of gambling, in particular, the player's own image with the necessary document, or require the use of video communication tools."
Journalists from the InformNapalm community note that it is the Security Service of Ukraine that should stop the activities of 1XBet, since the company's connection with the law enforcement agencies of the aggressive country is obvious. “This is because it is impossible to work on the russian market without connections in the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation, and you need to pay for the loyalty of the FSB with something. Today, this is the personal data of Ukrainians,” the investigation notes.
Moreover, after analyzing the applications and sites of "1xBet" and "1xstavka", the journalists found out that these platforms are 100% identical. It should be noted that about a month ago, the first InformNapalm investigation about the work of "1XBet" in Ukraine provoked a significant resonance in the neighboring country and, at the same time, gained the interest of journalists from Poland, Lithuania and Britain. The Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine has begun checking gambling operators for ties with the Russian Federation, and the state regulator of the gambling market, KRAIL, has dissolved its Expert Council.
Meanwhile, the people of Ukraine have already spoken out in favor of a ban in their country of the gambling operator "1xBet", based in Russia, the aggressor state. A petition with such a request, published on the website of the President of Ukraine, has already collected almost 30,000 signatures, with the required minimum of 25,000 for Volodymyr Zelensky to accept it for consideration.
