It is not just the Russian law that seeks to remove casinos and relocate them to other areas. In Russia it seems that all gaming operations will cease on 1 July, the legal ones anyway, as the gambling zones are still in various stages of planning. In Ukraine a fire at a slots hall led the government to close all such venues, aiming to follow a similar path to the Russians by creating gambling areas. The Cambodian government last December ordered all slot machine operations into hotels certified by the Ministry of Tourism.

In the New World both Chile and Nicaragua are proposing changes to gaming law, albeit from different viewpoints. In Chile it has been realised that the 2005 gaming law that opened casinos around the regions outside the Santiago area took no account of the existing municipal casinos with licences due to expire in 2015. Now legislators have risen to the defence of the seven municipalities that could lose their casino revenue.

Director of the National Tourism Service (Sernatur), Oscar Santalices, has pointed out that these casinos were built to create tourist attractions and it is necessary to modify the 2005 law in order to prevent the municipalities being left with white elephants if the casinos are closed. The seven mayors of the affected cities are already lobbying hard to keep their source of jobs and revenue.

In Nicaragua the Casinos and Slot Machines Law is being debated with a view to relocate casinos outside some areas and also to regulate slot machines and the online lottery. The initiative seeks to move gaming to 4- or 5-star hotels with a minimum of 30 rooms and aims to prevent gambling activity amongst children and young people. The legislative proposal excludes the National Lottery and scratch cards, but not the online lottery. (E-05.22.09)

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