Russian Las Vegasas? 

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this week that he wants to close down all gambling businesses outside of four “Russian Las Vegasas” and several “gaming zones.” Needless to say, slot machine and casino owners are not happy by the announcement. 

Gaming operators enjoy a $5.5 billion industry a year, but that is about to change. It will end up being distributed among what they feel will be large international companies. The government has been discussing limiting gaming, but this came as a shock to those who had been working on the problem. Smaller slot machine parlors would be the first to go, and then all of the larger ones would be moved to one of the specified areas, or closed down. They have until January 1, 2009 to make all of the recommended changes.  

Some think that the slot machines will go underground; others think they will die off all together. The concern is how expensive it will be to move these casinos, and how time consuming it will be for the companies. The territories will determine how they are regulated and who regulates which ones. The potential locations are Ramenskoe, Kaliningrad, Ivanovo, Khabarovsk, and Moscow.

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