| Top > News > 2006 > December > 27 Dec 2006 |
Russian Parliament Votes Against Online Casino Sites |
| Russian online casino fans may not like it, but this last weekend the local online gambling industry has received a big hit from the parliament. The State Duma, Russias’s lower parliament, has passed this week a bill against online casino sites, and if the Federation Council and President Putin sign it off it will become a law. The proposed bill, which creates four gambling zones in the country, outlaws online gambling and online poker, while also setting the minimum gambling age at 18. The main purpose, according to people inside the parliament, is to stop the unregulated spread of gambling outlets in Russia. The four “gambling zones” were created, on purpose, far from any urban centre: 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. In addition, the bill also bans any form of gambling, including online casino sites, at apartment buildings, kiosks, airports and seaports, among others, something which will greatly harm all online casino fans in the country. According to Duma Deputy, Alexander Lebedev, the committee deliberately chose those areas that would attract the most foreign tourists. In addition, the main criteria was to select areas as far away as possible from Moscow, in order to take the pastime away from that region. The new law is expected to come into effect only in 2 years from now, but there’s no doubt that all the gambling businesses and online casino operators in the area can start worrying from now. After all, any news that put in danger the fate of online casino sites is a bad one. |
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