Casinos and slot-machine halls shut down across Russia on Wednesday as a new law took effect that put sweeping new restrictions on the country's formerly boisterous gaming industry.
Tens of thousands of people were expected to lose their jobs as a result of the law, which was signed in 2006 by then-president Vladimir Putin in a bid to halt the spread of gambling addiction.
Estonia's Casino Boom Brings Cash and Death
With its cobbled streets and medieval towers with names like Fat Margaret , the capital of Estonia is an unlikely rival to Las Vegas but it has seen a casino boom that has brought
With its cobbled streets and medieval towers with names like Fat Margaret , the capital of Estonia is an unlikely rival to Las Vegas but it has seen a casino boom that has brought
The impact was immediately visible on Novy Arbat, a street in central Moscow that had been called Russia's Las Vegas because of its gaudy casinos decorated with large neon signs.
"The casino is closed in accordance with the law," said a sign on the Korona casino, while workers hauled slot machines wrapped in plastic out of the nearby Metelitsa casino.
People Hooked to Gambling Do Not Learn from Their Mistakes
Gambling is addictive and those who are hooked on to it, do not learn from their mistakes and thus end up being on the down side of the luck, says a new study.
Gambling is addictive and those who are hooked on to it, do not learn from their mistakes and thus end up being on the down side of the luck, says a new study.
"All of them are closed in compliance with the federal law," Krutakov was quoted as saying by RIA-Novosti news agency.
Advertisement
Pennsylvania Government's Partial Shutdown Ends
The budget impasse that existed in the Pennsylvania government after a deal was struck between the legislator and the governor on Monday night.
The budget impasse that existed in the Pennsylvania government after a deal was struck between the legislator and the governor on Monday night.
The law marks the end of an era that began in the 1990s, when businessmen and gangsters who acquired fantastic wealth in Russia's post-communist turmoil gambled it away in lavish casinos.
Advertisement
Legalized Gambling Threatens U.S. Security
A book has warned that a surge of legalized gambling in the last two decade is affecting security and military readiness in the United States.
A book has warned that a surge of legalized gambling in the last two decade is affecting security and military readiness in the United States.
But Putin, who once called gambling addiction "even stronger than addiction to alcohol" and is now Russia's prime minister, stopped the industry in its tracks with a law that literally exiles casinos to Siberia.
Starting July 1 casinos may only operate in Russia's western Kaliningrad exclave, along the Azov Sea in the south, in the Altai region of Siberia, and in the far eastern Primorye region, near North Korea and Japan.
However casinos have been reluctant to move to the four designated legal gambling zones, given their undeveloped infrastructure and the difficulty of attracting customers to the far-flung regions.
Some casinos are expected to refashion themselves into poker clubs under a quirk of Russian law that officially recognises poker as a sport rather than a game of chance. But playing for money will be forbidden.
The gambling law is expected to have the biggest impact on Moscow, which had 524 casinos and gaming halls before the law took effect, and Saint Petersburg, which had 109.
That has raised concerns about the impact of job losses just as Russia is struggling with the effects of the global economic crisis.
The Russian Association for Gaming Business Development, a trade group, has said the law will cost 350,000 jobs and deprive the state of two billion dollars of tax revenues, but official estimates are much lower.
Moscow officials have said just over 10,000 people may become unemployed in the Russian capital.
At Novy Arbat on Wednesday, two men in suits stood next to an expensive sportscar staring at the boarded-up Arbat casino, where they used to work, and lamented the impact of the new law.
"More than 1,000 people worked there. Of course it's sad," said Andrei, who refused to give his last name and said only that he had worked in security for the casino.
But Sergei Kakeyev, a 24-year-old standing nearby, described the new law as positive. "They did the right thing. Many of my friends gambled, though I didn't get excited by that," Kakeyev said. "They lost a lot of money."
Source-AFP
LIN
