FreeKassa Offline After Probe Into Illegal Casino Payments
FreeKassa abruptly disappeared from the internet last Thursday, with its website becoming inaccessible, its VKontakte and Telegram communities removed and all affiliate links rendered inactive. The shutdown came shortly after a report by Izvestia alleged that the payment processor had been handling transactions for illegal online casino operators in Russia and linked the project to Kaliningrad-based IT entrepreneur Andrey Grekov.
Following the publication, gambling platforms and partner services quickly removed FreeKassa from their cashier options. Before going offline, the processor had been widely used by unlicensed casino brands, including 1Win, which has recently faced enforcement action and property seizures in Kazakhstan.
According to the investigation, FreeKassa operated outside formal regulatory structures, holding no licence or tax registration in Russia. The platform reportedly did not conduct identity verification checks and provided only minimal support channels, such as an email address and chatbot. Although previously blocked by Roskomnadzor, it continued functioning through mirror domains and technical integrations with offshore casino sites.
Deposits could be made in rubles, foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies, with payment flows allegedly routed through bank cards and phone numbers registered to intermediaries used to conceal beneficial owners. Investigators believe the system relied on large volumes of such accounts, creating potential conditions for laundering funds and evading oversight, while collecting commission on each transfer.
Attention has also turned to another processor, Kassa.AI, which remains active and is reportedly under review in connection with the same gambling network. Izvestia indicated that domain and analytics data suggest links to Grekov. Unlike FreeKassa, Kassa.AI presents itself as a B2B e-commerce payments provider and names a Kazakhstan-based legal entity also associated with the DonatePay donation service.
Sources cited in the report say Kassa.AI could effectively replace FreeKassa for affected operators, structured to work with registered entities in a model compared to Qiwi Bank, which previously lost its Russian licence and later shifted parts of its business to Kazakhstan. Market observers noted that grey-market payment infrastructure often resurfaces under new brands and domains while retaining the same technical backbone, suggesting transaction flows may soon migrate.
