Billions in illegal betting and a purchased EU passport: how the fugitive founder of 1xBet, Roman Semiohin, built a shadow empire by deceiving regulators

Billions in illegal betting and a purchased EU passport: how the fugitive founder of 1xBet, Roman Semiohin, built a shadow empire by deceiving regulators

Roman Semiokhin — the founder and main beneficiary of the online bookmaker 1xBet — lives in Cyprus, organizes music festivals, builds office complexes, and willingly gives interviews.

As it turns out, an international arrest warrant, being blacklisted by European regulators, and the dubious origin of his billions in income do not prevent him from living a comfortable life on the island. Why did the decisions of the Anastasiadis administration allow this situation to persist for so many years, and isn’t it time for the current Cypriot government to finally settle this matter in accordance with the demands of European institutions?

International Hunt and Mediterranean Comfort

How do you imagine the life of a man wanted around the world? Separation from loved ones, fake documents, rented apartments, drawn curtains, insomnia, and nervous glances over the shoulder? Let’s leave Hollywood clichés aside: in real life, everything is much simpler. You just need to choose the right place.

On the paradise island of Cyprus, in the business and resort city of Limassol, lives and thrives the co-founder and main beneficiary of 1xBet — one of the world’s largest online betting platforms, whose activities have repeatedly attracted the close attention of law enforcement and regulatory authorities in various countries. Over time, this attention escalated into a criminal case, which, however, has caused our protagonist no noticeable inconvenience: here, on the island, he organizes music festivals, builds office complexes, and willingly gives interviews to Forbes.

The Dutch publication Follow the Money notes that in this interview, published in 2021, Roman Semiokhin confirmed his connection to 1xBet and stated that the headquarters in Limassol was established by him and his partners. The interview is generally candid: in it, Semiokhin describes for the first time how a single betting shop opened in 2007 turned into an international structure worth a billion dollars. The Gambling Park portal notes that in the conversation, Semiokhin compares his 1xBet business model to a McDonald’s franchise: "The local partner decided for themselves how to work, with whom, and which license to obtain." Upon closer reading, this rather interesting analogy may reveal a great deal and therefore deserves special attention. But more on that later.

Geography of Prohibitions

On his personal blog romansemiokhin.com/, which can be found in web archives on archive.org, Roman Semiokhin presents himself as a philanthropist and patron, emphasizing his activities "for the benefit of Cyprus." For some reason, the blog does not mention that these activities were financed through income from illegal gambling.

Meanwhile, from a legal standpoint, the picture is unambiguous. In the regulated gambling markets of Europe, the 1xBet platform is not a "grey zone." It is a violator that regulators in various countries regularly block, fine, and blacklist.

In the Netherlands, the gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) fined the companies 1X Corp N.V. and Exinvest Limited — the legal entities through which 1xBet operated — €400,000 for organizing and conducting gambling activities without a license. It was established that their activities were specifically targeting Dutch users: websites had a Dutch-language interface and accounts could be topped up through the local iDEAL payment system.

The Belgian Gambling Commission has placed 1xBet on the blacklist of its gambling operator register.

The Hellenic Gaming Commission (HGC) directly lists this bookmaker in the register of operators prohibited from serving Greek users.

The Danish Gambling Authority, which regulates the gambling market, has blocked 1xBet domains as an unlicensed operator.

In Sweden, the regulator Spelinspektionen has prohibited the activities of 1xBet since January 2020.

The Ministry of Finance of Lithuania has added 1X Corp N.V. to its register of illegal operators.

In Poland, 1xBet domains have been repeatedly blocked by the Ministry of Finance.

The Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic has placed 1xBet on its official blacklist.

The Swiss Gambling Supervisory Authority (GESPA) has blocked the website.

The Estonian Tax and Customs Board has added 1xBet to its list of prohibited operators.

In Italy, 1xBet sponsored Serie A without a valid ADM license, causing a major scandal and, as expected, leading to the bookmaker being blocked.

In the United Kingdom, 1xBet’s activities also led to a national scandal. Following a journalistic investigation, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) blocked the company’s website, forcing football clubs Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham to immediately terminate their contracts with the bookmaker. According to The Times, further cooperation with this platform threatened heavy fines and prosecution.

According to the investigation’s findings, the platform accepted bets on cockfighting and sports events involving minors, placed advertising on pirate sites, and offered casino streams featuring topless or fully nude dealers.

In 2020, the Russian authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Semiokhin. He and two of his associates are currently wanted worldwide on charges of organizing illegal gambling, as well as money laundering.

Roman Semiokhin and his two associates remain on the international wanted list.

According to the investigation, the platform earned more than 63 billion rubles from its unlicensed activities. For comparison: the budget of Athens that year was €820 million, equivalent to approximately 69.8 billion rubles.

Mr. Semiokhin and his associates have also been sanctioned in Ukraine, where they operated under a license from the national gambling regulator KRAIL. In September 2022, KRAIL revoked the license of the legal entity "Your Betting Company," which operated in the country under the 1xBet brand. The main accusation concerned the bookmaker’s ties to Russia through Semiokhin’s associates — Dmitry Kazorin and Sergey Karshkov — who are also under Ukrainian sanctions and, like him, hold Cypriot passports.

As a result, the NBA — the Cypriot gambling regulator — included the 1xBet website in its list of blocked domains. The main resource, represented under various domains, occupies a prominent second and third place on this list, and its numerous "mirrors" — alternative backup addresses used to circumvent blocks — occupy about another 300 positions.

The creator and owner of this illegal betting infrastructure lives comfortably in Limassol.

Betting on Iran

However, not all states treat Mr. Semiokhin’s business with the same strictness. Where European regulators find violations, jurisdictions with much stricter regimes seem to see opportunities. Take Iran, for example — a country where gambling is strictly prohibited in principle, the internet is under close state control, and international payments are difficult due to sanctions. One might think this is the least suitable jurisdiction for an online bookmaker to operate. Nevertheless, according to a separate technical report, 1xBet maintains a special Iranian adaptation of its site — ir.1xbet.com.

For readers unfamiliar with the world of online betting, it is worth explaining: such a local version of the site is not just some random page on the internet. It is a way to continue operating where the main resource is blocked, prohibited, or unavailable. The user does not go to the main domain but to an alternative address visually and functionally linked to the main platform. In the case of Iran, this appears to include not only website access but also comprehensive adaptation to the local market: the pages of ir.1xbet.com display support contacts, links to Iranian social networks, and payment solutions tailored for users within the country.

The website’s payment infrastructure deserves special attention. The report mentions HotVoucher and CardPardakht — tools that allow Iranian users to pay for foreign online services under conditions where traditional international systems like Visa, Mastercard, and SWIFT are practically unavailable. In other words, this is not about the passive existence of a site that someone in Tehran accidentally launched, but about an active attempt to integrate into the local financial reality.

At this point, the story takes on a political dimension.

In Iran, gambling is prohibited, and the internet and payment infrastructure are controlled by the state much more strictly than in most European countries. This is precisely why the very possibility of a betting platform operating and targeting Iranian users seems, to say the least, strange. If the authors of the report mentioned above are to be believed, such activity in Iran is fundamentally impossible without agreements with people who have access to administrative resources.

Of course, claims about possible agreements with Iranian structures require separate verification. But even without them, the emerging picture is striking: while European regulators block 1xBet for operating without a license, and Ukrainian authorities impose sanctions on individuals associated with this platform, in Iran — a country where gambling is strictly prohibited in principle — the brand has its own local version equipped with payment instruments and customer support.

If these claims are true, then we are no longer just talking about an unlicensed bookmaker operating in yet another dubious jurisdiction, but about potential financial involvement in a system linked to a regime that openly threatens the security of Cyprus and the entire civilized world, creates and finances terrorist organizations around the globe, and threatens countries in the region with nuclear apocalypse.

A Passport No One Questions

Cyprus is a member of the European Union. This means that a Cypriot passport is not just a document of an individual state, but a pass to Europe: it ensures freedom of movement, access to the European financial system, and the full set of rights granted to an EU citizen. According to our publication’s data, the founders of the bookmaker, banned in Cyprus, obtained citizenship of this country. Semiokhin received Cypriot citizenship on November 25, 2016 — four months after submitting his naturalization application on July 19 of the same year.

At this point, the story intertwines with another scandal — much larger, also of local origin and linked to the island’s previous government.

From 2007 to 2020, Cyprus operated an Investment Citizenship Program, now notoriously known as the "golden passport" scheme. Formally, it offered foreign investors citizenship in exchange for investments in the country’s economy. The peak of issuing Cypriot citizenship for money occurred during the presidency of Anastasiadis. However, it later turned out that the background checks of applicants under the program were too often merely a formality rather than a real filter. The culmination of the scandal was the explosive investigation by the Al Jazeera television channel in October 2020: journalists documented systematic corruption, including the willingness of senior officials to help individuals with criminal records obtain Cypriot passports. Within weeks of the report’s publication, the program was shut down.

As shown by the results of the official investigation conducted after the scandal, in 51% of naturalization cases, the criteria established under the program were not met. Moreover, some applicants were classified as "high risk," which included individuals with criminal records, pending criminal cases, or against whom international arrest warrants had been issued.

After this, Cyprus, as expected, began stripping citizenship from its new citizens. Since 2021, the Council of Ministers has approved the deprivation of citizenship for 306 individuals, including 88 investors and 218 family members. Mr. Semiokhin and his close associates, who obtained passports through a real estate investment scheme organized by the company Jovaras LTD, do not appear to be among them. No official explanation has been given for this, and it would be logical if the current government finally clarified this issue inherited from officials of the previous administration.

Given the above, it is no longer so surprising that a man wanted worldwide for money laundering and organizing illegal gambling, associated with an empire of unlicensed betting operations covering dozens of countries, managed to obtain citizenship of a European state. What is interesting is this: why have the current Cypriot authorities still not resolved the issue inherited from the previous government regarding the revocation of his citizenship?

Profit for Us, Responsibility for You

In corporate law, there is the concept of "willful blindness," when a person deliberately creates a structure that allows them "not to know" what they should know, in order to evade responsibility and the need for risk management. Semiokhin’s description of his franchise model, in which local partners allegedly independently decide how to conduct activities and which licenses to obtain, may serve as a textbook example of just such a construct.

It is worth noting that the issues of ownership and profitability of the platform leave no room for doubt. In an investigative article by Follow the Money from 2023, it was established that, despite the opacity of the company structure, analysts agree that 1xBet’s turnover is in the billions, and Semiokhin is its main creator and beneficiary. According to InformNapalm, in the same Forbes interview, Semiokhin confirmed that 1xBet independently develops its own platform — a B2B solution — which serves as the foundation for numerous brands, including BetWinner. 

So, the situation is as follows: there is a company whose profits run into the tens of billions. Part of this revenue was obtained illegally because the statutory licensing requirements for its activities were not complied with. The company has an owner who receives the lion’s share of the income — both legal and illegal.

However, when it comes to responsibility for organizing illegal gambling, he claims to have absolutely no connection to the crime. Why? Simply because he did not know! After all, as he explains in the Forbes interview, "the local partner made an independent decision" regarding obtaining (or, in this case, not obtaining) the license. It’s just that the Russian Investigative Committee, for some reason, did not believe this and initiated a criminal case against Mr. Semiokhin, resulting in him being put on the wanted list. Perhaps they just didn’t watch that interview...

The McDonald’s analogy that Semiokhin is so fond of — according to which the corporation indeed bears no legal responsibility for the actions of its franchisees — is nothing more than an attempt to stretch a legitimate business model over an illegal scheme. It sounds plausible and simple, like all clever things. Only one small detail is missing: in a classic franchise (such as McDonald’s), the local partner is an independent business. They sell hamburgers, deposit money into their own cash register, pay salaries and taxes, and the McDonald’s corporation only takes a small percentage (royalty) for the use of the brand. In the 1xBet scheme, the financial flows are different: players place bets, and the profits from these bets go directly to the accounts of either the company itself or affiliated structures — as was the case with Sergey Kondratenko’s "Royal Pay." This is not a royalty. This is a huge revenue stream, the main beneficiary of which is the platform, not its "local partners."

It seems obvious that within such a hierarchy, issues concerning technology, infrastructure, brand, and, of course, licensing, cannot be left to the discretion of anonymous local agents. Such decisions must be made centrally. Otherwise, responsibility becomes blurred — and it becomes impossible to determine who is actually responsible for the legality of the company’s actions. It would be strange if the business owner did not know about this, although it is quite convenient for him.

The owner of a platform who claims that "the local partner makes decisions independently" regarding licensing — even if this made the platform’s activities illegal in more than a dozen EU countries — is either catastrophically naive about his own business or making a conscious and calculated choice.

Or perhaps we ourselves are naive, ready to believe that the owner simply did not know about the scandals surrounding his platform, the criminal cases, the huge fines, and finally, the bans on operating in Russia, Ukraine, and a number of EU countries. Although in that case, the existence of thousands of mirror sites — sites created by 1xBet’s IT specialists to circumvent blocks, about which supposedly no one knew and for which no one wants to take responsibility — remains completely inexplicable.

Jurisdiction of Miracles, or the Art of Not Knowing

In the European Union, there is a well-functioning mechanism for dealing with individuals subject to sanctions or on international wanted lists. For example, back in 2022, the European Commission explicitly addressed the issue of a number of Russian citizens who managed to obtain citizenship or residency permits in EU countries despite existing entry bans against them, and called on member states to consider annulling the documents issued. At about the same time, the European Parliament demanded a complete halt to "golden passport" schemes in all EU member states.

Against this background, the unhindered presence in Cyprus of the founder of one of Europe’s largest illegal betting networks and his inner circle raises questions that go beyond mere bureaucratic oversight. Usually, such oversights are corrected; this story, however, has been dragging on for years.

And, apparently, it doesn’t matter that somewhere outside the island, Mr. Semiokhin is wanted on multiple criminal charges. He does not allow such trifles to affect his quality of life, whether at work or at leisure: the man subject to an international arrest warrant is briskly adorning Cypriot cities with new office complexes and festival venues.

At this stage, this becomes a matter of simple human curiosity: how did it happen that a passport of an EU member state could be obtained for money — to put it bluntly, bought — and one could comfortably settle on this paradise island, despite crimes committed first in one’s homeland, then on EU territory, and around the world? The answer to this question lies in the structure of the "citizenship by investment" program that operated under the previous, corrupt government, when, as it appears, the comfort of some of its beneficiaries was ensured, among other things, through billions in income from organizing and conducting illegal gambling.

Today, it is hard to believe that the current authorities are unaware that Semiokhin and his inner circle are permanently residing on the island and hold Cypriot passports issued back in 2016. All the more so, European regulators, journalists, and MEPs have every right to ask Nicosia the following questions today: Does the current government plan to review the status of these passports? And how many more years will it take to finally close this chapter?

The international arrest warrant versus the Cypriot hospitality of years past, based on a love for Russian criminal money — who will win this contest depends largely on the resolve of the current Cypriot authorities. It must be acknowledged that the administration of President Christodoulidis has demonstrated a willingness to correct past mistakes. Since 2023, hundreds of "golden passports" have been annulled, and at the end of 2025, parliament finally closed a loophole that allowed the government to grant citizenship to investors outside the usual procedure. The open question remains whether Roman Semiokhin will be on this list.