Moscow`s out of the game
The legislation on the four reservations for gaming business was unanimously adopted by the deputies. No-one dared to suggest setting up gaming zones next to Moscow or Saint-Petersburg. But gaming industry representatives are hoping that the law will change till the year 2009. Their special hope is for lobbying possibilities of the Moscow government.
The second reading of the legislation “On state regulation of activities involved in gambling organization and arrangement” was supported by 425 deputies on Friday, almost without objections. As the “Gazeta.Ru” has already informed, gaming zones will be set up in Altay, Promorie, Kaliningrad and Krasnodar regions. It was more than once that gaming business representatives stated that gamblers of the two Russian capitals – Moscow and Saint-Petersburg – will not go so far away to satisfy their gambling interest. But these protests were to no avail. The only two deputies who were displeased with the regions chosen for gaming areas were Victor Reshulski (KPRF faction) and the State Duma Vice-Speaker from LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovski who assumed that in Primorie the gaming zone would be made for the Chinese, in Kaliningrad – for the German, the Polish and the Lithuanian, in Krasnodar and Rostov regions – for the Armenian. “Where will the Russians gamble?” the deputy was at a loss.
Further on Zhirinovski submitted an option in his own peculiar style – to make such a zone in Kalmykia, in the steppe, “so that no one could see or hear anything, so that Cossacks could be guards there”.
Apart from the regions chosen for gaming zones, the deputies discussed some technical detail of managing gaming-towns-to-be. Under the legislation, the RF Government shall agree upon any actions on forming and managing gaming zones with the local authorities. Including the borders of the zones, the management procedures and even the taxation procedures. Besides, the legislation emphasized that “non-residential” land territories where gaming zones will be located may belong solely to the state or to the municipality. Under the new law, a gaming zone may function arbitrarily long, and in the event the RF government will suddenly make up its mind to transfer the zone, it may be liquidated no earlier than after 10 years since its creation.
To set up a casino in a gaming area, it needs to have a special permission for the period of 5 years which allows a gambling operator to open only one gambling facility within a gaming zone. Special requirements for gambling operators are also provided: net assets of a legal entity setting up a gambling institution shall be no less than 600 mln rubles, and no less than 100 mln rubles for setting up bookmakers` offices and totalizators. A technologically installed average winnings of a slot machine can`t be less than 90%. The public area of a casino shall be no less than 800 square metres, and there shall be at least 10 gaming tables; the public area of a slot location shall be no less than 100 square metres, and there shall be at least 50 slot machines.
Meanwhile the legislation does not apply to bookmakers` offices and horse-courses.
The activities of exchanges and lotteries will not be controlled by this law either.
The new law will come into effect since January 1st, 2007. Gaming business participants still have time till July 1st, 2009, - by this moment all casinos shall have been relocated to gaming zones. But by July 1st of the coming year they will have closed all the gambling facilities which fail to meet the requirements of the new law.
In spite of the fact that the deputies voted unanimously, gaming market participants still call the law on special gaming zones a Utopian one, and in the form it is being considered now – not satisfying the needs of the market and the population. So they are still hoping for the lobbying possibilities of strong regional authorities. Evgeni Kovtun, Vice-President of Gaming Business Operators Association, stated to the “Gazeta.Ru” that probably, before the law comes into effect, some other significant changes will be introduced to it: e.g. the Moscow government will initiate including Moscow region into the list of gaming zones.
The law has some other requirements impossible to comply with. For instance, in the “Unicum” company ( a gaming equipment manufacturer), they believe that banning gambling activities in the Internet which is contained in Point 3 Clause 5 is absolutely useless because “any Russian citizen will have a chance to install a server in any offshore, and from there hold the same gambling under the same domain and in the Russian language.” “Actually a player does not care where the server via which they can gamble is installed,” they remark in the company.
Gazeta.ru