In the economy

Dry law

July 6, 2009 Anton Oresh

But I am against the closure of the casino. Motivation is clear to me. For a decent citizen, a game of a one-armed bandit or throwing a ball until the morning in the hope of a happy “clear-unit” is not the best activity. And there are no stories, when the victims of Ludomania became by no means for the rich and loafers - burners of life, and ordinary hard workers and even pensioners who received their pennies and immediately lowered them in machine guns. Then begin to play things out of the house. Then the house itself. And dying from vicious passion.

But in this sense, gambling is no different from alcoholism. And there they drink the latter, and there they carry the most expensive from home, and there a person does not give a damn about his family, children, and on himself. And there the end is sad and dirty. But for a long time it is obvious to everyone that alcoholism is not won by either dry law or the Gorbachev “semi -dry”. However, with gambling, they decided to fight exactly the same dry law.

In which the most amazing, of course, is that he was fulfilled. That's how they said that from July 1 we would close - they closed it. We, Muscovites, are already accustomed to our famous casinos on the central streets, they have become part of the landscape over the past 15 years, the attraction no worse than the Bolshoi Theater and the Mausoleum with Gum. And now they stand, bombed and empty, and even somehow you won’t remember, and what happened before before.

Every idea can be brought to the point of absurdity, and in this part we are famous specialists. When the main streets of the capital turn into Las Vegas, this is absurd. When the old building is removed from the state protection and remade to the game club - this is absurd. When the first thing a person sees, leaving the subway car and finding himself in the lobby of the station, turns out to be a slot machine - this is absurd. And when such machines stand wherever you can put them, this is absurd, of course. Since the “alcohol” parallel arose, then this is about the same as if they had traded vodka right at the entrance to the metro and there would be only glasses on the main street, and instead of all museums, bars opened.

But there is nothing criminal in drinking alcohol as such. If this does not cross rational boundaries, does not harm others and does not violate the law. Also, the desire to put on the “red” quite fits into the gambling human nature. It is only necessary to put this desire in a reasonable framework. Do not interfere with human passion, but not to encourage. Do not seduce at every step. Actually, when small play points began to close in the same capital and remove the machines attached everywhere-it was correct, reasonable and reasonable. In the end, proletarians and pensioners did not go to large casinos. It remained only to transfer these casinos to places that were not so striking - to the outskirts, to new areas, or to the suburbs, where to create “specially designated places” for them.

It is impossible to win excitement. And as ancient wisdom says, if the phenomenon cannot be eradicated, it must be organized and led. Gambling brings large, very large, income. Even official income is large. So what's the point of losing it? After all, they will not stop playing. Game maniacs will still find a way to play, because gambling, like alcoholism, is a disease, not licentiousness, as many think. A person cannot simply tell a strict voice: do not drink, do not play - and he will stop. Will not stop. Find a way. Alcoholics drank surrogates, drove moonshine, poked all sorts of rubbish. "Players" will play underground. Where there will be no control at all, except for the control of criminal structures. Where too much win can not be given to you, but to give instead of it on the head, for example. And the native state will not receive not only the current one, let it and not complete, a share of business, but will not get anything at all. Moreover, other states will receive. Because serious entrepreneurs in the gambling sphere do not have a special desire to arrange "buttleracy". They organize everything legally, but abroad. And here it will remain exactly that crazy criminal companies.

But what about four federal gaming zones? Our Russian Las Vegas? That's how Russia is not America, and Azov is not Las Vegas. America is a country that is everywhere adapted to life, with about the same standard of living everywhere, at least with quite high in all its parts. This is a country, on the one hand, smaller than Russia, and on the other, much more mastered in terms of infrastructure, with a much greater mobility of the population. Therefore, for an American to fly to play Vegas is a completely trivial adventure. For Russian, flying on the Amur to twist roulette is extreme on the verge of idiocy.

Build gambling Klondike where there is often no normal sewers - this is the same absurdity to which you can bring the streamlining of the fight against vicious passions. Since Lomonosov, we have been waiting for growth in Siberia. We cannot really establish anything in our distant parts, except for mineral extraction-so why did someone suddenly decided that everyone would rush for distant lands to invest in game zones? On the other hand, of course, no one simply believed that the decision to close all the evil places would be so punctually implemented, but now I do not think that investors would be raised in Kaliningrad, Azov City, etc. Again, investing abroad interested parties will be easier.

Although houses will remain at home confirming the golden rule, that the most strict ban can be circumvented. With the prostitution officially prohibited in the country in any city, it is easy to satisfy the need for sexual entertainment. Enough to take a closer look at how much the “sauna” grew around. Washing and steaming is not forbidden. Including with people of any gender. So it turns out that "we went to the bathhouse, at the same time was washed."

Similarly, the problem of excitement is solved. For example, even before the deadline for the closure of the casino, the opening of poker clubs and the renaming of the casino into such clubs began. Because poker is not only one of the most common gambling entertainment, but also an officially recognized sport, both at the world level and in Russia. Everyone will now play poker, but if, along the way, somewhere behind a width or a hidden door, you can play some other game, then you won’t control everyone. In extreme cases, they will bite. Because if you consider the gambling establishment by a roster of the disease, then it is worth legalizing at least one Bacillus - the rest themselves will immediately bind.

And there, stroking, the state will understand that it got excited, especially when nothing will burn out with four Russian Las Vegas, and to change his mind, will play back. At first, several casinos will be allowed, then a few more, and there, as it were, again on the new Arbat, the presidential motorcade did not have to rush to the Kremlin through neon lights of institutions on both sides of the road.

Photo by RIA Novosti