For almost two years now, an extensive network of halls called the “Bill System” has been operating in Yekaterinburg. There are about 50-60 terminals in the premises, “cherries” and “monkeys” on the monitors, and excitement in the eyes of visitors. Business owners are happy: of course, security and supervisory authorities are not taking effective measures to suppress activities, explaining their position by the extremely competent legal qualifications of businessmen.
Representatives of the “Bill System” claim that they are not engaged in organizing and conducting illegal gambling, but in the over-the-counter trading of bills using terminals, the image on which is only visually similar to a gaming machine and serves to attract customers.
According to the terms of the game, in order to be allowed to play on the gaming equipment, the participant (client of the “Bill System”) transfers money to the administrator, who makes a payment to the machine using a plastic card, after which the figures nominal for the amount deposited appear on the equipment monitor and the participant is given the right to independently carry out the game by pressing the appropriate equipment buttons.
When playing on this equipment material winnings are determined by a random coincidence of identical pictures and numbers on the screen - it all depends on the game (visualization) that the visitor has chosen - these can be “frogs”, “strawberries”, “books”, “monkeys”, and so on, familiar to gamers.
The virtual reel displayed on the gaming equipment monitors changes the location of the symbols as it rotates and determines the amount of winnings or losses of the gaming club visitor, which is shown in monetary terms. If you win, the hall administrator issues cash cash to the participant of the hand game in the amount corresponding to the points won. Thus, under the guise of a transaction for the purchase and sale of bills, the game process takes place.
At the same time, for some reason the control authorities are not concerned about one nuance: if, in their opinion, bills of exchange are being traded on the premises, then why is no one holding the operator accountable? According to current legislation, the circulation of bills of exchange in electronic form is prohibited, and the sale of a bill of exchange must be carried out simultaneously with its transfer into the hands of the buyer. The client does not receive any bills of exchange, and therefore cannot cash them. But, we repeat, no reaction follows.
Let us note that similar establishments also operated (are functioning) in Volgograd, Perm and Volgograd, where local law enforcement officers, one way or another, attempted to bring the owners of the “Bill System” to justice. First of all, the prosecutor of the city of Ishimbay in the Republic of Bashkortostan showed himself actively in this field.
He filed a corresponding application in court, but lost. He filed an appeal, and the higher court overturned the decision, at the same time stopping the court proceedings - the statute of limitations for bringing to administrative responsibility had expired by that time.
It is interesting to study some excerpts from the decision of this case (No. 12-14/201 of April 8, 2016, Ishimbay City Court). For example, one of the witnesses at the trial testified that “In August 2015, he went to play at a gambling club, which is located opposite his house. He previously played slot machines in Moscow, and the games installed on the terminals in the bill club are visually no different from those he saw on the slot machines. Playing in the bill club, he understood that he could lose money, but there was hope that he could win. While playing, he experiences excitement and understands that there is a risk of losing money. When entering the club, no one asked him for his passport details and no one told him anything about the bills.”
Very interesting. Doesn’t it seem to the owners of the “Bill System” that only they see the bills? Players don't see. Another witness in the same case stated the following:
“On August 10, 2015, I returned from my work shift and a few days later I went to the club to play slot machines. The operating principle of the terminals in the club is no different from the operating principle of slot machines. You can place bets; if three lines match, bonuses are awarded. He came to the club to play, no one offered him a bill.”
The conclusion suggests itself - the purpose of visiting the halls is the opportunity to play games, i.e. For visitors, it was the game visualizations that were significant (the graphical interfaces coincided with the interfaces of slot machines), and not the transactions for the acquisition and assignment of bills.
The game visualization used on the terminals creates a feeling of excitement in the player, while winning (or losing) for the player is random, since the player does not know in advance at what price the bill will be purchased from him. He plays independently, risks money, which, according to the Federal Law “On government regulation activities related to the organization and conduct of gambling and amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation" is a sign of gambling.
In fact, the legal construction used is “which is a “veiled” activity of organizing and conducting gambling, but in fact is called an intermediary activity for concluding transactions with promissory notes on the secondary over-the-counter market, which is essentially a scheme for evading legal responsibility” - a quote from the court decision.
In Yekaterinburg, the matter has not yet reached the courts. Representatives of the “Bill System” wave in front of the inspectors the examination reports, according to which their equipment is not gaming equipment. There are two points here. Firstly, the examinations were carried out at the request of the businessmen themselves and were paid for by them (what kind of objectivity can we talk about?). Secondly, the terms “gambling” and “gaming equipment” are of a legal nature, not technical - so the examination is nothing more than an addition and being guided by it when making a decision would be at least stupid, since a legally significant circumstance is the player’s awareness of the possibility receiving a win or loss.
If you delve deeper into the legal subtleties, then it’s worth looking into the notorious Federal Law “On state regulation of activities related to the organization and conduct of gambling and on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation.” Article 4 states: “a game of chance is a risk-based agreement to win, concluded by two or more parties to such an agreement between themselves or with the organizer of the game of chance.” In this case, risk is understood as the danger of an unexpected expected loss of funds due to a random change in certain conditions.
Winning in a game of chance depends entirely or largely not on the skill of the players, but on chance. The essence of the gambling game is the random appearance of a sequence of conventional symbols, depending on the combination of which the player either loses money credited to his balance, or his balance increases, that is, the player receives a win. The player independently controls the game by pressing keys and places bets.
We see all this in the halls of the “Bill System”. Players place bets on their own, take risks, win, lose - and all this happens in Yekaterinburg, where VS establishments continue to operate. Their addresses are known to police, prosecutors and the Investigative Committee. Here are just a few of them: Kosmonavtov 78B, Sulimova, 65, Vostochnaya 7G, Pobeda, 70, Shchorsa, 29. They operate in an open mode, every day during rush hour there are about 30 visitors to the club, including people of retirement age, socially vulnerable students.
In private conversations, security officials admit that going against the “system” means signing a dismissal order. Nobody wants to risk their job. Some for their own reasons (family, children, work), some - for higher ranks - for other, perhaps selfish reasons. In this situation, we can only rely on the influence of the federal security forces. For example, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika, who arrives in Yekaterinburg on March 24 and to whom an official appeal has been prepared. Signatures of citizens who also demand the suppression of illegal gambling activities will be attached to it.
Another mask has been torn off from the organizers of illegal gambling
At the end of last year, the number of criminal cases initiated in Komi for illegal organization and conduct of gambling doubled (Article 171.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). If in 2016, employees of the regional investigative department opened 13 criminal cases of this category, then in 2017 – already 26. Investigators attribute the increase in the number of criminal cases to the fact that a certain practice has been developed in “exposing” the dealers of the shadow gambling business, who used different masks for their establishments. One of the latest signs is “Bill system”.
Let us remind you that since 2009, the organization of gambling outside specially designated gambling zones has been prohibited in Russia. But this did not bother the shadow gambling businessmen in Komi very much: every now and then in cities and regions, establishments with machines well known to gamblers - “one-armed bandits” - opened. At the first stage, the type of activity of establishments without a sign was easily guessed by the “cheerful” design of the facade, but then this sure sign disappeared, and underground casinos began to disguise themselves as other establishments. The organizers’ imagination knew no bounds: they would pass off the “shelter of one-armed bandits” as a club for chocolate lovers, or even as a charitable organization involved in the treatment of gambling addiction (passion for gambling). In Syktyvkar, for example, several years ago there were active establishments where anyone, having made a sponsorship contribution in favor of those suffering from gambling addiction, could play themselves in order to personal experience understand how difficult the fate of a gambling addict is.
IN Lately the disguise became more serious: in many regions of Russia, including Komi, the organizers began to pass off illegal gambling activities as “intermediary activities in concluding transactions with promissory notes on the secondary over-the-counter market using a hardware-software complex with appropriate software.”
According to Igor Teterin, senior inspector of the procedural control department of the investigative department for Komi, in 2016 the attacker created Cascade LLC and opened establishments under the guise of “Bill System” in Syktyvkar, Ukhta, Pechora, Vorkuta and Usinsk. The employees of these establishments confusedly explained to visitors the principles of “bills trading”, and even concluded some kind of agreement to carry out exchange activities. The hardware and software systems installed in the premises, when starting to work with them, provided access to the licensed software of the ZENITH trading bill system. Although regular customers knew that these machines were no different in principle from the “one-armed bandits” familiar to gambling addicts, and all “exchange activity” consisted of tense anticipation of a winning combination of symbols.
According to the terms of the game, in order to be admitted to the equipment, the client of the “Bill System” transferred money to the administrator, who used a plastic card to make a payment to the machine, and the participant began “bill trading” independently. The procedure was simple and well known to any gambler: you place a bet, press a button - “funny pictures” (birds, fruits, animals, etc.) appear on the screen, and several identical symbols must form a winning combination. In most cases, the combination was a losing one - underground casinos earned a lot of money from those hungry for easy enrichment.
The underground business was organized on a grand scale. The establishments of Cascade LLC at various periods of time, including simultaneously, were located at 12 addresses in five cities of the Komi Republic. At least 80 workers worked at Cascade. During the investigation, 512 gaming terminals were seized.
– A significant amount of investigative and operational work was carried out in this criminal case, which resulted in the receipt of irrefutable evidence. During the investigation, a significant number of citizens who played in these organized underground gaming clubs were identified and interrogated, whose testimony had evidentiary value. As a result, the organizer of illegal gambling activities, who initially did not admit his involvement in the crime, was forced to fully admit his guilt, explained Igor Teterin.
By a court decision, the organizer of the “bill system” in Komi was fined.
The Syktyvkar City Court is currently considering a criminal case against another organizer of illegal gambling. A 33-year-old man rented non-residential premises in the capital of Komi and equipped it necessary equipment with installation software under the logo "Veksel Trading", selected staff and from February 2017, under the guise of alienating bills and other securities, began to conduct gambling in the establishment around the clock.
Law enforcement officers stopped this activity in June 2017, during which time the organizer received an income of at least two million rubles. Now the gambling businessman is awaiting a court verdict. From the materials of the criminal case it follows that this citizen had previously been sentenced to suspended imprisonment with a fine for committing similar crimes: in the past, he organized clubs in Syktyvkar to play poker for money.
In January 2018, employees of the Ezhvinsky division of the investigative department for Syktyvkar of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Komi completed a criminal investigation against a 38-year-old local resident and his 31-year-old acquaintance, accused of illegally organizing and conducting gambling.
According to the investigation, the defendants opened gambling establishments not only in the Ezhvinsky district of Syktyvkar, but also in the city of Mikun, Ust-Vymsky district, and in Usinsk. Now both businessmen are also in the dock.
Lyudmila VLASOVA
Photo of the Investigative Directorate of Russia for the Republic of Kazakhstan
The concept of a bill of exchange and the bill of exchange system
In the business world, you often have to deal with loans. But applying for loans requires a significant investment of time and the preparation of numerous documents. Time factor in modern conditions may affect profit margins. And missed opportunities can even lead to bankruptcy.
Sometimes the debtor only needs a deferment. Or, for example, it is necessary to pay for the supply of goods, but there are no free assets. On the other hand, sometimes interest rates on loans can significantly reduce the size of the final profit.
It turns out that financiers have long come up with a way out of this situation. The bill of exchange became such a lifesaver. What is this item? The answer is ambiguous. Paradoxically, professional financiers have an ambiguous attitude towards the bill.
A bill of exchange is a security document of a standard type. This means that you can perform the same operations with it on the securities market as with other securities. On the other hand, a bill is a kind of promissory note. It is issued to the lender as a guarantee certificate for the loan. As a rule, the bill does not contain additional conditions. In the modern legal field there is a generally accepted concept of a bill of exchange:
Definition 1
A bill of exchange is a document of an approved sample, which is a security and contains an unconditional obligation of the drawer (borrower) to pay the amount of money specified in the bill of exchange to the bearer of the bill of exchange (bill holder) within the period specified in the document.
There are several approaches to classifying bills of exchange. They differ in each country and in the world as a whole.
Legal field of bills of exchange
To streamline the circulation of bills, any state creates its own set of procedural and legal norms. A similar mechanism for regulating bill circulation is being formed at the international level. This entire set of legal acts forms the legal field in which transactions with bills of exchange can be carried out (bill legislation).
If in past centuries each state developed separately, then with the development of capitalist relations and the intensification of commodity production. The world economy began to integrate and acquired an international character. This caused the need to streamline and harmonize a number of provisions of economic and financial legislation. Therefore, in 1930, the international Geneva Convention on Bills of Exchange was signed.
Features of bill legislation
As mentioned above, the International Bill of Exchange Convention has been in force since 1930. It contains a number general provisions, which streamline transactions with bills at the international level. But it allows for variations in the national bill legislation of states.
In 1937, the Soviet Union adopted a law on bills of exchange and promissory notes based on the Geneva Convention. But due to the specifics of the Soviet economic system about bills in Soviet time simple people had a very distant concept. Only with the revival of the institution of private property in Russia and the development of entrepreneurship and market relations did the need arise to update bill legislation.
In $1997$ in Russian Federation The Federal Law “On Bills of Exchange and Promissory Note” was adopted. It is this that is the basis for resolving legal and economic disputes in transactions with bills of exchange.
There are several types of bills:
- simple,
- translated,
- deposit,
- borrowed,
- external,
- interior,
- etc.
It all depends on the approach and legislation. For example, UK law only recognizes a bill of exchange.
Features of a promissory note
A promissory note is a document of a standard form, which contains an obligation to pay a debt in a specified amount and at a specified time.
If the bill does not indicate interest rate, then such a bill will be called interest-free. If the interest rate on the loan is indicated, then this is already an interest-bearing bill.
Concept of a bill of exchange
A bill of exchange, unlike a simple bill, contains an offer from the drawer to the payer (third party) to pay a certain amount of money to the bill holder. Similar operations were carried out back in the Middle Ages by many market money changers and large banking houses.
Other types of bills
Some bills of exchange can be used as an instrument for capital accumulation - deposit bills. When paying for delivered goods, commodity bills of exchange are used. You can get a loan against a bill. Then such a bill will be called a borrowed bill.
In any case, the bill must be correctly drawn up, in compliance with all the details. Otherwise, it will be declared invalid. Then the holder of the bill may suffer losses.
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Legal support:
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Legal notes department:
The legal entities on which the Millennium platform operates have undergone inspections more than once, but during the entire period of the platform’s existence there have not been any judicial trial, although the Millennium platform has been operating since 2015. Representatives of the Millennium company have a large arsenal of rejected materials and examinations.
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Tortuga
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Legal support:
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Providing documents for work:
An LLC and an accompanying package of documents for the platform, rental of premises and equipment, hiring of personnel, and a power of attorney for a lawyer (representative) are provided.
Legal notes department:
The Tortuga platform was launched in 2017. Based on the no-win principle. In the assortment of expertise. No refusal materials or court decisions have been submitted yet. The platform has unique animations of an exclusively entertaining nature (funny pictures and jokes); in fact, it is full-fledged entertainment content without the slightest hint of signs of gambling. We advise you to draw the attention of consumers from regions where, when conducting an inspection, law enforcement officers have a strong opinion that if there are “strawberries” and “monkeys” on the screen, then this is definitely not legal.
Holytrade
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- the broker's license attached to the package of documents belongs to Fort Financial Service, and not Holytrade inc.
Trade bill system "Veksel"
Full package of documents 15,000 per month
15% for 1 hall, % less from turnover and profit
Legal notes department:
With this group of platforms (the “disguise” of which is based on bill trading) you need to be careful. It seems that the scheme is not bad, you can work on the basis of a legal entity, trading bills of exchange is not prohibited, and explanations must be provided to law enforcement officials, and in a number of regions it can “take off.” However, there are two big “BUT!” Not a single lawyer for companies offering bill of exchange platforms could answer one simple question: “Who decides on the pricing of bills of exchange?” And also provide a link to the normative act, which states that the bill of exchange can be in electronic form (according to the law, the bill of exchange can only be in paper form). Let's turn on common logic and consider the work scheme. The client came to the club, signed an agreement, deposited money into the account, selected the denomination and pressed magical button, namely: “Buy and sell” (spin). Those. the decision to buy was made by the client, and the decision to sell was made by the client, while the client sees the purchase price, but does not know the selling price of the bill. This is nothing more than a “risk-based win agreement.”
A bill of exchange is a security that allows deferred payment or unconditional payment for goods or services delivered within a predetermined period. Liquid bills can also be used as a means of payment or collateral.
A bill of exchange is a security that confirms the obligation of the debtor (drawer) to pay the required amount to the creditor (holder of the bill) within an agreed period of time after its presentation. The right of claim may be transferred to third parties without additional conditions and approvals from the drawer.
It was from the bill that all subsequent stocks, futures, options, derivatives and other debt options originated. Their active use as a means of payment and credit led to the adoption in 1930 of the Geneva “Uniform Law on Bills of Exchange and Promissory Note”, which was adopted by most countries as the basis for creating domestic regulatory documents, for example, the Federal Law of the Russian Federation “On promissory notes and bills of exchange”.
A number of countries, such as England, the USA, Canada, Australia, are guided in their practice by the English Law of 1882, the main provisions of which coincide with the Geneva Convention. There is also a group of countries that use bill circulation standards separate from the two listed: Egypt, Spain, Taiwan and others.
Like all securities, is in free circulation, but has its own distinctive features:
- Abstractness− obligations have only a monetary value and are not directly related to specific obligations that preceded its registration.
- Indisputability− the requirements are unconditional for fulfillment in full.
- Solidarity− financial responsibility lies with all persons involved in the execution and circulation of the bill.
- Documentation− exists only in the form of paper forms strict reporting with several degrees of protection.
Use in commercial practice solves the following main problems:
Types of bills
- Simple. An obligation to pay the required amount within a specified time frame, in favor of the creditor in whose name it is issued. What is a bill of exchange in your own words? It is an analogue of a promissory note;
- Transfer or draft(Italian “tratta” - transfer) - the debtor (drawee) makes a payment in favor of a third party (remitee) on his order or on behalf of the person who issued it (drawee). An analogue of debt transfer under a loan agreement.
- avalized. Additional guarantee of the bank (avalist) for the execution of payments. It can be either simple or translated. Partial avalization of the required amount is allowed.
Required details
The text on the form must contain the following information:
Acceptance
The payer's (acceptor's) agreement to fulfill the requirements of the bill of exchange. This is not required for promissory notes, since in this case the obligation to repay arises and is accepted at the time of presentation.
Transfer of rights
With the help of an inscription on the reverse side of the form or in the absence of space on an additional sheet (allonge), called an endorsement, the current owner (endorser) transfers all rights under it to the new holder (endorser).
The endorsement must be certified personally by the endorser and seal, if he entity. He can remove his obligations for acceptance and payment with the phrase “no recourse to me,” which usually leads to a decrease in liquidity during the sale. Partial endorsement is not permitted. If it is necessary to exclude the possibility of the next transfer of rights, the phrase “not by order” is included in the text of the endorsement. In this case, only the sales contract applies.
Endorsement options:
- Named. With full details of the endorser.
- Blank or bearer. In this case, the details of the new holder are indicated by the endorser. After the payment deadline, it automatically turns into a registered one.
- Collection An inscription in favor of the bank, which receives the right to accept or demand payment. The holder receives compensation in the form of the specified amount minus interest (discount) for early repayment;
- Non-negotiable. With the phrase “without recourse to me,” freeing the current owner from acceptances and payments.
- Preferential. Gives the transferee the right to act on behalf of the endorser without ownership of the bill.
- Collateral to secure the loan.
Payment on a bill
The procedure contains:
- presenting the bill for payment within the acceptable time frame; if the maturity date falls on a weekend, payment is made on the first working day;
- immediate payment by the debtor of the amount specified therein, deferment of payment is allowed only in case of force majeure;
- early presentation for payment does not oblige you to make and accept payments before the final repayment date;
- the debtor has the right to pay part of the required amount, about which a corresponding note is made on the form.
Protest bill
A notarized refusal to pay confirms the fact of the emergence of joint and several liability of all persons associated with it. A special register of protests is maintained and it is important to understand that such a bill may be the basis for filing a financial lawsuit.