(AsiaGameHub) – Online casino promoters continue to target Russian state-owned public organs, exploiting expired domains.
They recently seized control of the former website of the State Agrarian University of the Northern Trans-Urals (GAUSZ), a higher education institution run by the Ministry of Agriculture in Tyumen, Russia.
Founded in 1959, GAUSZ completed a merger with nearby Tyumen State University last year, as reported by Russian media outlet Nash Gorod. The two institutions now operate under a shared website.
Recognizing this change, online casino promoters waited for the domain registration of the old GAUSZ site to expire before purchasing it and relaunching it as a Russian-language casino portal.
Nash Gorod reported that, as of last week, the portal still contained university-related content on its pages.
However, CasinoBeats observed on May 7 that the operators had since removed all materials associated with GAUSZ.
Instead, the site now offers discount codes for various illegal Russian-language online casinos and slots platforms.
Russian University Website Hijacked by Online Casinos
Some of these platforms appear to display logos from Russian bookmakers that hold valid licenses. The site also features what seems to be fabricated analytics data about the odds of popular illegal slot games.
The portal claims to provide links to “certified online casinos” that have been granted permission to conduct gambling operations.
Under Russian law, both using and operating online casinos are criminal offenses.
Nevertheless, the site’s creators also state they link to mirror sites of “well-known gambling establishments” via “hacked software.”
Tyumen State University clarified that neither it nor GAUSZ has any connection to the old domain or the content currently hosted on it.
Promoters Rapidly Claim Expired Domains
Such incidents have become increasingly common in Russia. In 2024, a similar takeover occurred with the former website of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug government, drawing widespread criticism.
“They’re probably trying to get us to place bets instead of paying out social benefits,” remarked a local resident on social media—a comment that quickly went viral.
At the time, several government agencies continued to list links to the casino-occupied website, even after the domain was compromised.
The Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug authorities admitted they had “forgotten to remove the link to the old website.”
This year, online casino operators took over the former city website of Yakutsk. Similarly, in Kyrgyzstan, promoters recently seized a site previously owned by a state-run trading company.
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