Punters face long trip to remote Russian casino

Azov City Half a year after Russia closed all of it's gambling casinos and slot-machine halls, the first new casino opened yesterday under a plan to limit legalised gambling to four comparatively remote areas.

About 500 people showed up for the opening of the Oracle casino in Above City, a gambling zone in southern Russia. But only about 100 of them appeared to be actually placing bets. The casino, in a large shed-like building in a snowy field, has about 200 slot machines and 10 table games. The zone is about 100km from Rostov-on-Don, the nearest sizable city, and 200km from Krasnodar.

It's unclear how many Russians will be eager to travel long distances for a gambling excursion, but the casino's operators say they're convinced there's a market and they plan to start building a four-star hotel for gamblers this summer.

Casinos mushroomed in Russia's cities after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and slot machines quickly spread beyond gaming halls to shops and malls. The spread of gambling provoked distaste among many Russians over the flashy cars parked outside glittering casinos in Moscow and the harm that gambling can do to society.

All the gambling operations were closed on July 1 under a law that was signed in 2006, but that many had expected would never be enforced.

The law limits legalised gambling to Azov City, the Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea, the Altai region of Siberia and the Primorsky region in the Far East.

- AP