The first foreigners refused from gaming business in Russia
Thus Mansion Group became the first foreign gaming company to leave the market after the new version of the gambling law had been passed, informs RBC Daily.
At present Mansion Group owns a building of a poker club in Moscow and a five-star hotel in St Petersburg. Both buildings are still under construction – the poker club in Vernadski Prospect would have been opened in April 2007, and the “Ostrovski” hotel – by the end of the current year. The newspaper informs that the company does not conceal that they are leaving the market due to the legislation changes.
The matter is Mansion Group considered the poker club as a chance to develop online casinos in Russia, and they are one of the company`s major activities around the world. However, the gambling law effective since January 2007 bans gambling organization and arrangement in the Russian Internet.
The newspaper sources report that earlier Mansion Group negotiated buying the sport TV Channel 7TV, but the deal fell through.
Pursuant to the new gambling law, all casinos in Russia must be relocated to specially created gaming zones beyond residential areas, which will be placed in Altay, Primorue and Kaliningrad regions and on the border between Rostov and Krasnodar regions. Bookmakers` and totalizators can be placed outside gaming zones, however the requirements for them will toughen.
Lenta.ru