Ufa fails to cope with gambling industry

Ufa fails to cope with the gambling industry, prohibited on the territory of practically the whole of Russia. 73 casinos go on working on the territory of Ufa in spite of all vetoes, the head of Ufa administration Paul Kachkaev reported on Tuesday.

“It’s high time to start attracting our law-enforcement structures for solution of this problem” – he said.

It should be reminded that according to the Russian legislation the gambling industry is tabooed on the whole territory of Russia, except four specially organized zones – on the Maritime territory, in Altai and Kaliningrad regions and on the borderline of Krasnodar and Rostov regions and the corresponding law has come into force still in July 1, 2009. At the same time Ufa authorities evidently loose this battle, going on unsuccessfully struggling with the illegal game machines already for the second year. Thus, 1228 game machines, four roulette wheels and 22 card tables have been withdrawn from Ufa underground casinos only in 2010. But these measures can’t stop the lovers of this illegal business. The problem of the underground casinos is typical not only for the capital of Bashkiria but for many other Russian regions. Not long ago the Russian Attorney-General Uri Chaika gave the instructions to start wide-scaled checks in Moscow, Samara, Sverdlovsk and Stavropol regions and in Dagestan. The charge, brought against one businessman on organization of the network of underground casinos in 15 towns of Moscow region has become the case of such actions.