Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law December 30 that
will close casinos and slot-machine halls across most of the country in a
few years, forcing the establishments that have become a garish feature of
the new Russian landscape into four legal gambling zones. The law also
outlaws online gambling and online poker, and sets the minimum gambling age
of 18 years. The bill had sailed through the Federation Council (upper
parliament house) without opposition on December 27, 2006. The State Duma
(lower parliament house) had already approved it on December 20, 2006. The
sites where the zones are planned are now infrastructure-free wilderness,
and all are distant from Moscow, the capital: the Altai Territory (southwest
Siberia), Primorye (Far East), the Kaliningrad Region (Russia"s exclave on
the Baltic Sea), and on the border of the Rostov Region and the Krasnodar
Territory in the south of the country. After July 1, 2009, any gaming
facility operating outside of the four approved gambling zones will be
banned. "Bookmaker's offices and pari- mutuels will make an exception in the
law and will be able to conduct their activities outside gambling zones,"
the press service pointed out. After the collapse of the Soviet Union,
casinos mushroomed in Russia's major cities and slot-machine halls have
sprouted throughout the country. Their prevalence has sparked resentment
among some Russians who recoil at the sight of flashy cars parked outside
flashier casinos, worries about gambling addiction and concerns about the
lifestyles of young people, whom Putin has urged to live healthy and
productive lives.