Primorie deputies decided to apply to the federal authorities with the request to postpone moving gambling establishments to “reservations”
Laws are quickly adopted, deeds are sooner said than done! Judging by the reports of federal and regional mass media, as of today only one zone has confirmed that it is ready to start work since July 1st, 2009: Azov-City on the border of Krasnodar and Rostov Regions. The situation in other zones is worse. Though the authorities of Altay and Kaliningrad Regions occasionally report on the interest of foreign investors in “Sibirskaya Moneta” and “Yantarny Bereg” gaming zones, this interest looks theoretical.
Primorie, perhaps, is one of the most neglected areas: the site for the gaming zone has not been yet selected and adopted. Firs, various persons named either Artyom or Khasansky District as possible options for the location of the Primorie gaming zone.
In 2007 it appeared that the situation calmed down: the administration of Primorie Region started talking confidently about the Cherepakha Cape and Muravjinaya Bay on the coast of the Ussuriysky Gulf not far from Artyom town. However, in the beginning of 2008 the Governor Sergey Darkin declared that the gaming zone was planned to “move” to Russky Island, thus solving a problem of further use of the infrastructure which would certainly be constructed on the island by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. This project could have been successfully implemented, but in June there was a next twist. The Chief of the Far East Directorate of RosStroy (nowadays - Deputy Head of the Russian Federation Ministry of Regional Development) Nikolay Ashlapov said that the concept changed: the summit infrastructure on Russky should be used by the Pacific Scientific Educational Center (as part of the Akademgorodok scientific research town of the Russian Academy of Sciences and federal university). So any roulettes or other “one armed bandits” should have no place on Russky.
In the end of July Sergey Darkin confirmed at the Pacific Economic Congress that the location of the gaming zone is in issue again. Among the priority options, as obvious, is the ignored before Muravjinaya Bay together with Lazurnaya (Shamora) Bay.
Taking into account all these organizational delays, in the beginning of September the Regional Legislative Assembly Committee on Regional Policy and Legitimacy started working on the problem of further gambling business operation in Primorie at the suggestion of the local Administration. “The Administration requests the Legislative Assembly of Primorie Region to address the State Duma with the initiative to extend the term of gambling business operation in our territory till 2012. We are not able to meet the deadline fixed by the law,” Press and Information Department of the Legislative Assembly commented on the meeting results. – The executive branch gives the following figures: now gambling business brings to the regional budget more than 500 million rubles per year and provides 1500 employees with working places. If the term for local casinos and gambling parlors is not extended, the region will lose significant amounts of money. The deputies of the committee decided to prepare corresponding appeal to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. Besides, the majority of gambling establishments in Primorie have their licenses expired only by the end of 2012. If the Primorie gaming zone opens on July 1st, 2009, these establishments could continue working there. However today it is clear, that it is impossible to arrange the gaming zone by July. Hence, gambling business and the regional budget will sustain losses.
At the regular session of the Legislative Assembly on September 17th the committee proposal was supported. The deputies decided to appeal to the government of the Russian Federation once again and after its favorable resolution to introduce to the State Duma the legislative initiative on extension of Primorie gambling establishments operation till the end of 2012.