Russia shuts all casinos in an attempt to make it 'clean'.
29th June, 2009
As of July 1st 2009 every casino is being forced to shut down across Russia, resulting in an estimated 400,000 people left without work. The government have left only one option for casinos and that is to relocate up to 4,000 miles away from the capital to four regions that are situated in remote areas of Russia.
Although the survival plan is to relocate, the regions allocated are not prepared for the move and it is estimated that no casinos will reopen for years. A supervisor from a casino in Moscow explained how “This is shaking my life and devastating, it is such a blow for me and my family”.
With employees not prepared and thinking it was a ‘government thing’ that would never happen it came as quite a shock that the authorities are following through this plan without carefully considering the implications of the impact. It is not just the employees of the casinos who are affected by this dramatic change but the gamblers too. A gambler said, “We are in one of the biggest, most beautiful, expensive cities in the world and yet other people decide whether I gamble or not.”
Moscow’s mayor stated “There was a time when these casinos and clubs grew like a cancer tumor. We will close them all by July 1st and Moscow will be clean.” So workers have begun tearing down the signs and gutting casino sites all over. The gambling industry will begin to re locate outside of Russia, making it one of the few countries in Europe without casinos. It will be years until we see the slogans “Have a Ball near the North Korean Border” and even then the gambling industry of Russia still faces an uncertain future.
By Gina
