For the last month the most important information, which excited all involved in gambling, concerned “the king of shadow gambling in the Moscow region” Ivan Nazarov. As it has been discovered, Mr. Nazarov organised a wide network of underground casinos due to his close connections with the FSB and Investigation Committee authorities.

Actually the publicity of this legal case is clear evidence of governmental desire to destroy totally the system of gambling that exists ‘in the shadows’ due to the imperfection of legislation. We doubt that nobody knew about this network – but the time came and achievements in fighting against illegal gambling should be demonstrated to people.

As for the other events in the market and the general situation – in less than the first three months of this year 388 illegal gambling halls in Moscow were closed, so it becomes simply non profitable for owners of illegal businesses to operate gambling in such conditions.

In previous reviews we pointed out that despite all governmental steps gambling businesses continued functioning. But since the beginning of 2011 that situation becomes more and more difficult. It is common place knowledge that all involved in illegal gambling have their own administrative resources in the local police or authorities dealing with gambling halls. But after the much publicised legal case with Nazarov, most of the ‘covers’ decided to disengage themselves from any hints of gambling involvement.

So we can say that for the moment illegal gambling has stopped in the territory of Russia but that legal gambling has not started yet. One should not forget about the people who lost their jobs and any income because of this. Of course, one can say that you should work in legal and honest organisations – but unfortunately the level of unemployment in Russia, especially in small cities, does not give that variety of choice.

Other news stories are mainly connected with slow shifts in gambling zone development – but this is just a drop in an ocean taking into account the general situation of uncertainty.

Azov City
Director of Don Investor Union Ivan Nozdran asked the government of Rostov region about the return of investments into ‘Azov City’. We recall that the Rostov region lost the right to locate a gambling zone due to the poor investment interest. But 9 companies have already invested more than $17 million.

Those properties that are already constructed could be sold, hypothetically - but who will buy them for the real price that will at least allow the return on investments let alone profit. However, the case of zone relocation became a precedent and there are no legal and normative acts that could regulate the question of money return.

Sibirskaya moneta
The situation with other zones seems to be a little bit more optimistic. Taking into account the precedent set with the relocation of Azov City to the more financially attractive territory, investors became more active in their desire to develop zones and simultaneously began lobbying for the relocation of the existing zones.

For example, the ‘Sibirskaya moneta’ gambling zone is located not far from tourist resort Beriozovaya Katun in the Altay region. The total area of the zone is more than 2 000 hectares. Total volume of investments into the zone development is estimated at $10b with most of the money supposed to come from investors.

Yantarnaya gambling zone
The echo of Azov City relocation has reached another gambling zone – Yantarnaya in the Kaliningrad region. The Governor of Kaliningrad, Nikolay Tsukanov, offered to relocate the gambling zone Yantarnaya closer to Svetlogorsk city - one of the famous resorts in the region. The present territory is far from any boroughs and it is very expensive to develop even elementary infrastructure.

Investments in the zone at the present territory are estimated at about $90 billion and the federal budget aims to cover about 14% of total expenses. Other expenses are supposed to be covered by private investors and participants of the gambling market.

Yantarnaya gambling zone positions itself as a business and entertainment resort with extended facilities for conferences and business events. According to informal sources, construction and development will be undertaken by American corporation IdeAttack, having vast experience of launching similar projects in USA and UAE. The amount of investment amounts to $20 billion.

Primorye gambling zone
This zone is supposed to be located in the territory of Ussuriysk resort. The distance to the nearest airport is 23 km, the distance to Vladivostok city is 70 km. The project of zone development presupposes 4 casinos with 1000 slot machines, 45 gambling tables, 20 poker tables and 10 VIP tables in each casino. Also there will be 3 hotels with 600 rooms in each, a number of shopping centers and other entertainment facilities. But the project is still a project.

Lyubov Loginova comments: “As we can see from initiatives of zone relocation we will finally find ourselves in the situation we tried to avoid with the help of a gambling ban – to transfer gambling as far as possible from people. But this transfer to ‘T’mutarakan’ caused the opposite result – all regions and investors ask for relocation to more civilized territories and government makes certain concessions.

Legislation
The hottest information over the last few days is the initiative of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to bring in criminal liability for gambling. On the 5th of March he assigned General Prosecutor Yury Tchayka to elaborate a set of actions that will allow for the destruction of illegal gambling once and for all.

Lyubov Loginova: “This initiative was quite expected. The case concerning Nazarov and governmental authorities who were involved in the organisation of illegal gambling could not be undertaken quietly, taking into account the publicity it had caused. The question will be what measure of responsibility and legislative changes will follow. For the moment we observe evident gaps in common laws that actually give wide opportunities for ‘shadow’ gambling as part of the high level of corrupt practices in Russia. (E-03.16.11)

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