CR85-p12-Europe CE&CIS3:SJC-Casino Review 25/10/09 13:47 Page 1
internationalcasinoreview
Czech industry escapes tax rise
An austerity budget passed in the Czech Republic, which
News
increased taxes on alcohol, tobacco and fuel, has not
asked for higher contributions from the lottery and gaming
industry. The centre-right opposition party proposed
gambling taxes should be increased, however, the interim
administration led by Jan Fischer (pictured) rejected the
EUROPE CENTRAL, EAST & CIS proposal. Gaming reform is unlikely to be on the agenda
until after new elections in June 2010.
Ingenious
Anton Olyeinik of Lobbying
Global Pay with the
kiosk that turns cash
accusations
into gaming credits
Russians
force
minister to
find new
resign
ways to
onthebench
POLAND
Poland’s sports minister
gamble
Mirosła Drzewiecki has
been forced to step down
from his post after he was
implicated in allegedly
illegal moves by a
gambling industry boss to
The ban on gambling in Russia is not
have proposed tax
as total as the authorities once claimed
increases blocked.
According to the
it would be. Big holes in the blanket transcripts of tapped
legislation have allowed other forms of
telephone conversations
gambling to grow up while much
published by
Rzeczpospolita newspaper,
continues underground. Drzewiecki’s name was
mentioned by an unnamed
surprisesurprise credits which in turn could owner of a gaming parlour
RUSSIA be used to make internet pur- and the parliamentary head
chases and - crucially - played of the Civic Platform Party,
Having sent the legal gam- in online casinos, particu- Zbigniew Chlebowski. The
bling industry across the larly those to which a direct businessman reportedly
entire country into oblivion link had been established on said that the minister was
in July, the Russian authori- the dedicated computer ter- someone who could help
ties are now worried about a minals in the café. With stop the tax changes going
rise in alternative gaming online slot machine games through.
technologies that escape the being played on the full- The tax increase being
current legal definitions. screen, there is little differ- proposed in the Gambling
One of the leading propo- ence in the experience of Bill would be used to help
nents of the ban, Moscow’s playing an online game com- fund the Euro 2012
deputy mayor Sergei pared to a real slot machine, football championships,
Baidakov, told a recent press especially as the terminals which Poland is co-hosting
conference:“W e are seriously will print out a voucher that with Ukraine.
concerned about the rise of can be redeemed for cash at The conversation was
surrogate technologies. They a kiosk. And provided the there are now many thou- ees in Moscow registered recorded by the state anti-
are the by-product of imper- servers are outside Russia, sands of slot machines that for benefits after the closure corruption body, which
fect legislation.” it’s all legal. have still not found a home - and that figure is still only a happens to be run by a
According to Baidakov, A member of the city elsewhere in the world and tenth even of official gov- member of the opposition
around a third of Moscow’s council in Moscow, Inna Svy- which are likely still to be ernment estimates prior to Law and Justice Party.
525 slot halls and casinos that atenko, has said that the operating in secret locations. the ban. The new expres- Drzewiecki has strongly
were closed at the ban have authorities at both the city Another indicator that the sions of gambling will have denied any wrongdoing, as
reopened as “lottery par- and national level were underground gambling taken on some people but has Chlebowski, who has
lours” selling instant lottery working on ways to close scene is flourishing is the the Russian economy is not been suspended from his
tickets. The number of inter- these loopholes. disparity between the so strong that it is able to role pending an
net cafés offering online gam- While the politicians number of people who used find employment for so investigation. The former
bling opportunities has devise ways of perfecting the to work in the legal industry many so quickly after such minister said he resigned in
trebled, say reports. legislation and closing the and those who were made an abrupt termination. order not to damage
The gaps in the legislation get-out clauses, the police in officially unemployed. As Baidakov also claimed preparations for Euro 2012.
have long been known: over Moscow and St Petersburg many as 400,000 people that the Moscow budget had He said: “I believe that
a year ago at the rump EELEX are reportedly waging a con- were employed by the barely suffered from the when the media frenzy
2008, for example, one of the stant battle against under- gaming companies nation- closure of the industry with dies down and the all the
few exhibiting companies ground gaming houses: as wide in 2008 - in Moscow tax receipts down by half of circumstances relating to
was showing a system in many as 35 venues have been alone, the figure reached one per cent. “It’s nothing the Gambling Bill have
which punters could buy shut down in the capital many tens of thousands. And compared to the benefits been clarified, it will turn
vouchers that could be con- alone since the legislation
Moscow’s deputy mayor
yet, according to Baidakov, for the health of the nation,” out that I have been falsely
verted into real-money came into effect. However, Sergei Baidakov only 1,500 former employ- he said. accused.”
New draft law on gambling in Ukraine
newhope Kharkov and in their administrative centres. The legislation that banned gambling in July
UKRAINE However, they would only be allowed in retail also required the Ukrainian cabinet to draft a
and entertainment centres and culture and new law within three months to define the new
A state committee in Ukraine has published entertainment venues. gambling zones. This draft law, while it will
proposals for a new gambling law, three months The draft law calls for limits on the face undoubted opposition in parliament,
after the country banned the activity outright. number of gambling establishments and could, however, form the basis of a more
The committee for Regulatory Policy and would determine zones where gambling is sensible regime between the largely
Entrepreneurship has proposed to allow allowed, as well as determining the precise unregulated and excessive market that existed
Mirosław Drzewiecki, who
gaming establishments to be set up in the licensing conditions and the responsibilities previously and the entirely unregulated and
has resigned as Poland’s
regions of Kiev, in Lviv, Odesa, Donetsk and of licensees. underground environment that exists now. sports minister
12 November 2009 • europecentraleast&cisnews
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80