‘We are going to draw up a schedule for closing down local gambling houses in the nearest future,’ the press secretary for the local council’s Consumer Market Committee Oleg Zemtsov said to UrBC representative.

Mr Zemtsov believes that only large gambling chains are going to operate in the city, and the smaller chains and sole traders have to think of the future of their business right now. The federal law concerning the state regulation of the gambling industry came into force on January 1, 2007, which means that all the gambling establishments that do not meet the legal requirements must close down.