Russian official wants to crack down on online gambling
Sergei Mironov, the speaker of Russia's Federation Council (Russian Parliament's upper house), wants to crack down on online gambling. As of July 1, all casinos in Russia were to restricted to four gambling zones. Mironov said because of that, Internet gambling saw a boost in action.
"Our next task is to drive gambling businesses out of the Internet," Mironov said. "The gambling restrictions are a test for our state's strength," he said. "If we waver and condone gambling businesses' attempts to find all possible loopholes, all our achievements in strengthening the state that we were so proud of are useless," he added.
Under a federal law signed in 2006, all gambling establishments in Russia were to be restricted to four gambling zones starting on July 1, 2009. The zones were expected to be located in the Altai, Primorsky, Kaliningrad regions and along the border of the Krasnodar and Rostov regions.
However, regional authorities failed to prepare the zones by the July 1 deadline, triggering uncertainty over the future of the Russian gambling industry.