Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

A senior Finance Ministry official told gambling operators to prepare for hard times, while scantily clad girls danced outside the conference hall at Moscow's annual international gaming expo Thursday. Dancers dressed as cowgirls moved to the din of slot machines at Crocus Expo, where hundreds of casino bosses, slots operators and manufacturers of gambling equipment gathered in the hope of understanding what pending legislation on gambling means for their booming businesses. "Prepare for the worst and hope for the best," Alexei Savatyugin, chief of the Finance Ministry's financial policy department, told the conference. The State Duma is expected to vote on the crucial second reading of the legislation as early as next week and no later than November, Savatyugin said. The bill represents the Duma's first serious attempt to impose strict regulations on the gambling industry, worth nearly $6 billion last year. The Finance Ministry's Federal Tax Service has been in charge of handing out gambling licenses since last November, but regional authorities currently govern all other industry matters. "The stricter the legislation, the more chances it will have to be approved by a greater number of politicians," Igor Dines, Duma deputy with United Russia, told the conference.