Since the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980’s, casinos, pokie machines and gambling in general, have become more and more prevalent within the Russian Federation.
In Moscow, for example, there are 30 casinos and more than 500 pokie machine halls. Pokie games can be found all over the suburbs of the city in gaming halls and even in local greengrocers. Big, glitzy casinos meanwhile, mostly found in the Novy Arbat district, generally bring in the more monied clientelle, the tourists and the ex-pats.
However, this is all set to change by the 1st July 2009 . According to Putin’s law of December 2006, casinos and slot machine halls all over Russia will be banned. These establishments will only be allowed to be situated in one of four “gambling zones”. These gambling zones are to be in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, near the Black Sea, in Siberia and one on the Pacific Coast. The idea being to remove and reduce generic gambling in each and every Russian city and to stimulate growth and economies in areas where it was significantly lacking.
As with all best laid (Russian) plans though, there is a problem: building work on the gambling zones hasn’t even commenced yet!
Those within the industry are obviously appalled by the law which would force establishments to close and or move. According to Samoil Binder, of the Russian Association for the Development of the Gambling Business, all the gambling zones are “at least 100km from the nearest settlement. The cost of building will be at least $40bn (£24bn), meaning we’d need 35 years to break even, and that’s assuming that the profits of these new zones will be the same as in Moscow, which is unlikely.”
The law will also have a massive economic impact straight away as it will be likely to put around half a million people out of work.
Despite logical economic objections to the zoning plan from casino-goers, owners and workers, the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, refuses to repeal the law. In February, the gambling sector workers Trade Union put forward an appeal to delay the ban until the gaming zones were completed, but the appeal was rejected. On 6 May Medvedev said that the new law would come into force on time and that “there will be no way back, no matter how hard certain business structures might lobby such decisions”. The Deputy Mayor of Moscow backed up that hard-line approach when he told reporters last week that legal action would be faced by any casino that failed to shut down by the end of the month.
At the moment, the government says that there will be no way around the law. Poker may be classified as a “sport” in Russia, but casino’s converting in name only to, “poker sports clubs” will not be tolerated. However, in a global economy that is suffering as it is, I personally can’t see any sensible government enacting a law that will result in half a million unemployed in one fail swoop. There are still 4 days left for the government to come to its senses before it shoots itself in the foot. The whole process seems more like a game of Russian Roulette than a rational economic or idealogical process to me, but time will tell?!!
This entry was written by Nena on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 11:14 pm and is filed under News.
