Russian gambling ban stimulates unemployment

The new Russian anti-gambling law, which was introduced in 2006 to battle problem gambling and criminality in the industry, becomes active on July 1 2009. Earlier this year, thousands of gambling businesses had to close shop, Metelitsa Club announced an employment cut of 746 employees, and the Jackpot group had to let 1333 employees go, before the law becomes active.

This law makes it illegal for casinos and gambling businesses to exploit their businesses outside the four designated ‘gambling areas’, with the exception of poker and sports betting, online casinos are already against the law, under current legislation, but also with the exception of poker and sports betting. State legislators predict the new anti-gambling law will not break the local economy because less then ten percent of total casino employees is native Moscovite. Deputy Mayor Sergie Baidakov, denies that the change will be costly, because venue loss is less than a half percent. He also promises help for gambling businesses that wants to start new businesses like clubs, restaurants, shops and leisure activities. He also promises help for employees who lost there job because of the legislation.

Moscow has 32 casinos and 517 other gambling businesses, together with a total of 40.000 employees, before legislation changed there were more then 2800 gambling or casino businesses. Meanwhile, Moscow’s unemployment  rises with 2000 every week, the prospect of more jobs being lost in the gambling sector is worrying. The legislation was introduced in better times for Russia, ever since the recession investors are reluctant to chip in, two of the four gambling areas asked for delay till 2012. The four areas that will allow gambling and casinos are Primorye, Altai, Kaliningrad and Azov Sea. Primorye and Azov Sea are the two areas who asked for the delay.