Russia Opens Its Largest Casino To Date
The casino is the first in the Tigre de Cristal gambling zone near the Pacific port city of Vladivostok. The casino comes just six years after the country took a very anti-gambling position. The atmosphere is definitely changing. Casinos are currently limited to just four regions of the country.
According to a recent Amaya Gaming quarterly earnings report, there is lobbying going on in Russia for online gambling. Russia is expected to take positive steps toward the industry next year.
“Within the EU, the trend towards in-country regulation continues at a steady pace,” David Baazov, CEO of Amaya, said. “Outside the EU, we are actively promoting regulation, and are seeing progress in some of our larger markets outside the EU, notably Russia.”
“In terms of Russia, it’s a dialogue that’s been going on for quite some time,” he added. “And I think that they see poker as a mind sport, et cetera. And the expectation is that they do regulate and issue licenses, as relates to Russia, in 2016.”
This summer it was reported that tax revenue from online poker could go toward its chess program.
It has been estimated that online poker could bring in 5 billion rubles ($146 million) per year to the government. Poker was officially considered a sport in Russia in 2007, protecting its standing. However, the Sports Ministry removed it from the national sports registry in June 2009, re-labeling it as a type of gambling.
Source: CardPlayer.com