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Police raid closes two Moscow gaming dens

Legislation came into force in 2009 to ban gambling everywhere except in four remote zones

MOSCOW, September 30 (Itar-Tass) - Police have shut down two illegal casinos operating in central Moscow, the source of millions of rubles for their organizers, Russia's Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass on Monday.

Officials said police raided the operations on Sunday. “One of the gambling places was housed in a five-room apartment on Patriarshii Prudy. Apart from the gambling zone, there was also a sauna, a restaurant and a rest room in the apartment. The entrance door had a lot of locking systems,” officials added.

“Police seized 36 gaming machines, motherboards and video archive showing clients. Data taken from the computers of the gaming machines shows that illegal gains were exceeding 170 million rubles,” sources said.

In another development, 22 gaming machines, four poker tables and a roulette wheel alongside gambling chips and packs of cards were seized in a multi-room apartment of an old house on Likhov by-street. According to computerized information, illegal income for the lawbreakers was more than 30 million rubles, they said. Two criminal cases were opened.

Legislation came into force in 2009 to ban gambling everywhere except in four remote zones.