The first casino to be built in one of Russia's newly designated gambling zones opened its doors this week.
Back in July last year, Russian authorities unexpectedly went ahead and implemented laws signed into place by Vladimir Putin in 2006. The laws decreed that all casinos were to be shut down and no longer legal with the exception of those in newly designated 'gambling zones'. The shut-downs put an estimate 300,000 casino workers out of a job.
The designated zones were Azov City, Kaliningrad, the Altai region of Siberia and the Primorsky region in Russia's Far East. The remoteness of the zones is no accident - authorities wanted to stamp out the proliferation of casinos and problem gambling that had become rife since the fall of the Soviet administration in 1991.
This week marked the grand opening of Oracle Casino in Azov City - becoming the first casino start operating out of one of the designates zones. Azov City is about 60 miles from Rostov-on-Don, the nearest sizable city.
According to reports the opening was a moderate success with around 500 people showed up for the opening, and around 100 actually placed bets on the casino's 10 tables or 200 slot machines.
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