Gaming zones turn out a proper mess
Ill-considered steps may lead to most unpredictable consequences. It has happened, for example, to the law on gaming zones. The idea was to create four civilized zones for gambling instead of uncontrolled gaming facilities and clubs set up virtually at every turn. There are 10 months left before their opening, however, the prospects of their operations are still vague. There has been no governmental statement on the zone in Primorie region yet. There is almost no progress in works in Altay and Kaliningrad regions. Some activity is only displayed in “Azov City” (on the border between Krasnodar and Rostov regions), but there are also big problems with attracting investors and gambling operators. The reason is simple: the location of the zones does not imply a huge influx of customers, which means that the investments would not be returned. At the same time the gambling ban throughout the country deprives regional budgets of considerable revenues. According to the Russian Association of Gambling Development, the closure of casinos and clubs will cost Moscow 16.5 billion rubles of uncollected taxes, and 95 thousand people will lose their jobs, 151 enterprises being liquidated. Therefore the experts` suggestion is to delay opening of the zones from 2009 till 2011-2012.