The Association of Operators of the Entertainment and Event Tourism Industry (AIRIS) unites key operators of gambling zones in Russia, aims to promote the development of domestic tourism, including event tourism, in the Russian Federation and protect the interests of the association members. The members of AIRIS are: the Krasnaya Polyana gambling zone (Sochi), the Yantarnaya gambling zone (Kaliningrad), the Siberian Coin gambling zone (Altai), and the Primorye gambling zone (Vladivostok).
The work of AIRIS is based on the principles of openness and transparency that the modern gambling business in Russia adheres to. The members of the Association regularly publish data on attendance (2.1 million guests for 2024), tax deductions (2.6 billion rubles for 2024), income and investment projects. All members of AIRIS raise public awareness of the responsible gaming strategy and ways to make smart decisions during the game. Legal gambling zones are government-regulated clusters operating in strict compliance with Russian law. They are key taxpayers in their regions, creating thousands of jobs with a developed corporate culture and social guarantees. Gambling zones have transformed into multifunctional entertainment centers, where the main focus is on non-gaming activities: concerts, gastronomic, sports and music festivals, sports shows, theater productions and spa programs. Over the past year, the amount of non-gaming revenue exceeded 1 billion rubles. However, today we are faced with a problem that limits our capabilities: the official Telegram channels of gambling zones are not displayed in the search of the Telegram messenger. Due to low rotation and the so-called “shadow ban” inside the Telegram application, third-party analytics services classify official channels of gambling zones as “bookmaking”, which is not true. Gambling zones do not accept bets on sports events and are not associated with online gambling — their mission is to create safe offline spaces for cultural, gastronomic and event tourism.
In this regard, we ask the management of the Telegram messenger to consider the possibility of creating a separate category — “Gambling zones of the Russian Federation” so that Telegram platform users can find official channels of gambling zones without additional obstacles. This will allow:
- To eliminate associations with online casinos prohibited in the Russian Federation;
- To increase user awareness of the structure of the legal gambling business in order to exclude appeals to illegal and underground analogues;
- To simplify guests' access to official information about concerts, festivals and promotions;
- To support the desire of gambling zones to develop event tourism.
We are ready to provide additional materials to confirm the legality and socio-economic significance of our activities. We are convinced that a constructive dialogue will help Telegram strengthen its position as a platform supporting responsible business. We will be glad to discuss any initiatives.