MOSCOW — Russian gamblers are placing their final bets before casinos close down for good in Moscow and other big cities.
A new law that comes into effect Wednesday says gambling must now be confined to four far-flung special zones.
Casinos and slot machines now will be allowed to operate only in Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, the Primorsky region on the Pacific coast, the Altai region in Siberia and near the southern cities of Krasnodar and Rostov.
Critics of the law lament the timing amid the global crisis. Almost 400,000 people stand to lose their jobs.
Casinos mushroomed in Russia’s major cities after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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