Swiss-Press reports that casino employees in Russia are already losing their jobs ahead of the 1 July deadline for casino closures. The four declared gambling zones in Krasnodar Territory, Primorsky Territory, Kaliningrad region, and Altay Territory, are a long way from being reinvented as gaming entertainment centres. Being in remote areas of Russia well away from the city of Moscow, the zones involve heavy investment in infrastructure as well as sufficient money to make any proposed gambling operations attractive to visitors.

When the gambling zones were announced, operators were less than enthusiastic about putting their money into new Russian casino projects and quickly turned to other countries, particularly Latin America, or other businesses. Costs for creating the gambling zones are estimated at 13 billion (US$296 million) for Primorye, 30 billion (US$683 million) for Altay, 271 billion (US$6.2 billion) for Kalingrad and 415 billion (US$9.4 billion) for Krasnodar. Although there has been some progress on creating the zones, such as requests for land tenders and electricity supply connection, it seems both local governments and private companies are holding off from committing to infrastructure and construction investment.

Deputy Mayor of Moscow Sergei Baidakov has said that the closure of casinos and amusement arcades ‘will not be an insurmountable problem for the city's economy.’ However, the cost of policing the inevitable upsurge of illegal gambling is likely to be considerable, even if many of the redundant casino employees return to their towns and villages. Ahead of the enforced casino closures the Metelitsa Club is letting go 746 employees, the Jackpot chain 1,333, with a further 233 at Mercury. The Russian gambling industry did employ around 40,000 people in 2,800 operations.

Now only 32 casinos and 517 other gambling businesses remain and unless any operator braves the wilderness and opens in temporary facilities in one of the zones, by 1 July the only gambling in Russia other than poker, declared a game of skill, will be illegal. The huge investment required to build and market successful gaming complexes, in areas presently lacking infrastructure and appeal for gamblers, make casino projects unlikely to be forthcoming in today’s economic climate, and already officials in two of the proposed zones are seeking delays until 2012. (E-04.20.09)

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