Russia could regulate video game ‘currencies’

The turnover of video game currencies that can be exchanged for regular money could soon be regulated in Russia, Izvestia reported on Monday, citing the country’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring).

The watchdog told Izvestia that the video game industry, especially the multiplayer online game market, has seen a surge in criminal activity in recent years due to its unregulated status by local and international organizations. The ease of transferring in-game currency and the high workload of platforms allow criminal transactions to be lost in billions of other transactions, Rosfinmonitoring explained.

In-game currencies that are used within a game to buy items, tools, or unwrap player packs can be convertible or non-convertible. The first type assumes that users have the ability to exchange real fiat money for in-game currency and then convert it back to fiat. Convertible currencies are widely used in such popular online games as Second Life, Entropia Universe, and Roblox.

“Non-convertible in-game currencies mean that players can exchange real fiat money for in-game currency without the possibility of a reverse exchange. Non-convertible currency can only be used in-game to purchase in-game items,” Rosfinmonitoring explained.

There are special exchange platforms for convertible game currencies, which underlies the necessity of their turnover being regulated, it said.

In 2021, the total global video game revenue excluding eSports amounted to $214.2 billion, according to expert estimates.

The chairman of the Association of Electronic Money Market Participants and Money Transfers, Viktor Dostov, wrote in a column for Forbes Russia this week that anti-money laundering measures familiar to the banking business or the cryptocurrency market will inevitably be extended to the virtual gaming world.

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