BUSINESS

New Year, New Law: Slot Machines To Go

By Yekaterina Dranitsyna

Staff Writer

Bloomberg Halls of slot machines have been outlawed due to complaints from city residents.

More than 300 slot machine halls have stopped operating in St. Petersburg since Jan. 1, according to local officials, as regional legislation now prohibits the existence of such halls in the city. Casinos will be permitted to operate until June 30, 2009, City Hall’s Committee for Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade (CEDIPT) said Wednesday in a statement.

The new regional law restricting gambling was approved by City Hall on June 13 last year, and supplements the federal law on gambling. Casinos are allowed to keep operating in the city only on the condition that they meet the requirements of the federal law concerning the number of gaming tables, total area of the hall, personnel employed and the size of the authorized capital stock.

“The city government was forced to close gaming halls due to numerous complaints from St. Petersburg residents whose relatives are addicted to gambling and from people who live in the buildings where slot machine halls operated 24 hours a day,” said Alexei Sergeyev, chairman of the CEDIPT.

“Gaming halls were enterprises where a considerable portion of violations of the law took place. That was the reason for closing gaming halls in the first place,” Sergeyev said.

At the beginning of December last year, the St. Petersburg government initiated an investigation to ensure that the new legislation was being enforced. The regional branch of the Federal Tax Service is responsible for control over the gambling industry and for applying the new law in practice.

“Entrepreneurs who have not closed their gaming halls are breaking the law. The tax authorities will decide what sanctions to impose on them,” Sergeyev said.

According to data from the St. Petersburg branch of the Federal Tax Service, by the beginning of December last year 45 gaming enterprises in the city met all the requirements necessary for casinos to operate in 2008-2009.

In mid-2007, according to official statistics, about 600 gaming enterprises were operating in the city. With the introduction of the new law, the St. Petersburg budget is expected to lose about 2.5 billion rubles in local taxes.

Most of the casinos to have survived into this year are owned by the largest companies — Vulkan, Profit and Lenars. Other companies operate fewer than three casinos.

By Jan. 10, the tax authorities in cooperation with the local police task force had identified five illegally operating gaming halls, the CEDIPT reported. Two gaming halls were discovered in the Nevsky district, two in the Kirovsky district and one in the Admiralteisky district. The halls were owned by Cash and Global companies.

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