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Casino owners are trying to circumvent legal prohibitions

Only 17 of the 104 gambling establishments operating in the center of the capital (which, like all other Russian casinos, were supposed to close on July 1) removed their property and cleared the premises they occupied. Prefect of the Central Administrative District of Moscow, Alexey Alexandrov, complained yesterday about the sluggishness of casino owners. In general, as the capital authorities reported, the requirements of the law that came into force banning gambling throughout the city have been fulfilled. The Moscow gambling business ceased to exist.

Thus, the press service of the mayor's office reported that on Wednesday night, task forces checked and hung locks on the doors of all 513 officially registered casinos and slot machine halls, and in 350 gambling establishments the owners did not have time to dismantle the equipment. As Deputy Mayor for Interregional Cooperation, Sports and Tourism Sergei Baidakov (who is entrusted with the function of “liquidation manager” of the gambling business) assured the former casino owners, there is no need to rush to remove the sealed property, but it will be under strict supervision. “I want to emphasize that we will control these roulettes, tables and machines so that they do not start working again,” Mr. Baidakov warned businessmen. So far, according to the deputy mayor, the hotline opened by the Moscow authorities has received only three signals from vigilant citizens who suspected that “one-armed bandits” were continuing to work in the neighborhood.

In the northern capital, the police closed ten points that belonged to large branded gaming chains, the press service of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region announced. At the same time, as RIA Novosti reports, small halls for holding so-called “electronic lotteries” continue to operate legally in St. Petersburg. These establishments have the same slot machines as in closed casinos, with the only difference: in the “one-armed bandits” there is no bill acceptor, and the money is collected by the hall administrator. However, the activities of such points fall under the jurisdiction of the Law “On Lotteries”, and not the Law “On State Regulation and Activities for the Organization and Conduct of Gambling”. “An attempt to replace the rules of playing slot machines with the help of a lottery, in my opinion, does not change the essence, since the main features of the game remain unchanged: excitement and the opportunity to receive a cash prize or lose money to the casino,” says lawyer Pavel Astakhov, a member of the Public Chamber. In his opinion, the activities of lottery operators “are clearly a violation of the legislative prohibition.”

In Astrakhan, the owners of gaming halls pass off ordinary “one-armed bandits” as lottery machines, reported the head of the press center of the regional police department, Evgeny Lukovtsev, following the results of the police raid. And this is not the only trick that the “gamers” resort to. “The other gaming room was more carefully disguised and was called an Internet salon,” said Mr. Lukovtsev. “A certain Moscow company maintains a game server and opens branches in the regions, which provide a constant flow of customers and a lot of money into their accounts.” According to a representative of the Internal Affairs Directorate, the transfer of money coming from a hidden gambling establishment took place via bank transfer: the intermediary was the Webmoney electronic payment system terminal, through which all payments were made.

The owners of gambling establishments in the resort of Sochi (there were 52 of them in the city when the law came into force) for the most part turned out to be law-abiding, representatives of local law enforcement agencies emphasize. “During the raid, police officers repeatedly discovered either locked doors with a “For Rent” sign hanging on them, or empty premises,” Alexander Erinburg, head of the press service of the Sochi police department, told ITAR-TASS. True, he noted, in two cases the police discovered that gambling was continuing in the casino. We are talking about “legal” establishments - in addition to them, more than eight dozen underground gambling clubs were operating in Sochi at the time the law came into force.

Let us remember that the law on state regulation of gambling was adopted two years ago. Legislators established that starting from July 1, 2009, all casinos and similar establishments should be concentrated in four special zones: in the Kaliningrad region, on the border of the Rostov region and the Krasnodar region, in the Altai and Primorsky territories. An exception was made for betting shops and bookmakers, as well as for sports poker clubs. The exclusion of poker clubs from the list of gambling establishments is unnecessary, says lawyer Astakhov. “It is believed that the casino will not gamble; it will only provide, for a certain percentage, the opportunity for visitors (club members) to play among themselves,” the lawyer notes. “But even in this case, it would be wrong to consider the casino’s role solely as passive, since such a gaming club is in any case an organizer of gambling.”

Mikhail MOSHKIN