Gambling in the huge country of Russia has been one of the major policy problems for the government since the early 21st century. At the end of the year 1927, the People’s Commissar of the Interior presented a report devoted entirely to gambling and the gaming business existing at that time to the RSFSR SPC. The main idea put across in this report was that such an idle pastime was very incompatible with the true spirit of the working class. At this time, there were only four small gaming houses operated in Leningrad, but regardless of this, the key prohibitive provisions noted in the report were approved.
This led to an all out ban on the opening of gambling houses in worker districts, followed closely by a ban on gambling in the entire districts. This was then followed by the resolution of the USSR SPC in May 1928. This instructed all Soviet Republics to “take measures on the immediate closure of any facilities for card games, roulette, lotto and other kinds of gambling”. This remained the same until 1988, when the first legal slot machines were introduced to the country. These were installed in hotels which were a part of the USSR State Committee of Foreign Tourism, and the following year, the gambling ban was lifted completely. The government would open the first gambling house in Moscow and later, the first casino would be opened in the capital city’s Savoy Hotel.
The popularity of gambling rose quite quickly, and this led the government to bring in regulatory laws in order control the sector. In 2006, a law was passed which prohibited all forms of online gambling, and later, in 2009, the country restricted its land-based gambling to four regions. These are; Kaliningrad Oblast, Krasnador Krai, Altai Krai, and Primorsky Krai. Aside from these four areas, gambling has been banned across the country, and remains the same to this day.
