Russian Land-Based Casinos Failing; Blame 2009 Gambling Laws

One year into the regime imposed on land-based and Internet gambling laws in the Russian Federation enacted in 2009, the government may have realized its mistakes; could reform to the reforms be coming?

Outgoing Russian president Vladimir Putin was a chief architect of the sweeping changes made last year, which required all casinos operating outside of four designated regions and essentially all online gambling sites in Russia to close down immediately. Today, just one of the four regions has an operating casino – and that one is about to change location in search of greener pastures.

Krasnodar governor Alexander Tkachyov has reportedly formally put in a formal request to current president Dmitry Medvedev to move the entire gambling zone in his area from the Krasnodar/Rostov border to the Black Sea area, as the casino's current location of Azov City has "no appeal to investors or gamblers."

Meanwhile, the former casino operators of the Russian Federation have reported layoffs of 5,000 workers and total redundancy payments of $26 million.

Since some estimates place the number of "underground" casinos at double the number they were in 2008, no indication that foreign-based online casino operators will be regulated, and the estimated number of online casinos in Russia now essentially the same as before the ban, it seems changes will rapidly be made in Russian casino law.