Thousands of illegal casinos closed down in Russia under new law

Thousands of illegal casinos closed down in Russia under new law

2011-11-03 08:10:12 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW (BNO NEWS) -- Thousands of illegal casinos and gambling parlors have been closed down throughout Russia since 2009 when a new law on gambling came into force, a senior police official said on Wednesday.

Underground casinos have mushroomed across Russia since the law banning gambling came into force in July 2009. Only four remote regions of the country are not subject to the new law, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

"As of today, 3,900 illegal casinos and more than 25,000 gambling joints, posing as lottery clubs, have been closed down," Sergei Ivanov, a head of a department at Russia's Prosecutor General's Office, told the news agency.

He added: "More than 390,000 pieces of gambling equipment have been confiscated and the amount of fines has topped 91 million rubles ($3 million)." The official said 1,100 criminal cases have been launched against the suspected organizers of illegal gambling businesses.

In a crackdown in February, a number of officials, including Moscow Region prosecutor Alexander Mokhov and deputy prosecutor Alexander Ignatenko, were suspended after police found evidence that they had "hushed up" an illegal gambling ring.

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