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Russian parliament supports creating gambling zone in Crimea

MOSCOW, June 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s State Duma has passed in a first reading a bill on creating a specially-designated gambling zone in Crimea.

Pursuant to the bill, introduced by President Vladimir Putin in late April, the Republic of Crimea will join the Altai, Kaliningrad, Krasnodar and Primorsky regions, where such zones are currently being established.

The bill reads the local authorities in Crimea will set the borders of the gambling zone. Experts estimate that Crimea’s budget may receive up to 25 billion rubles (about $727 million) from the project, said Anatoly Karpov, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Economic Policy, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship.

The gambling zone will most probably be set up in Crimea’s resort city of Yalta, however, no concrete place has been determined yet.

Earlier, Crimea’s acting Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov said the decision on the creation of a gambling zone in Crimea would be made by August. “Casinos and gambling zones will not be scattered over Crimea. Everything will be located in one place,” he said, adding that the republic’s authorities were currently studying various economic indicators given that “the economy is a key determinant of this decision.”Crimea’s authorities estimate overall project financing will reach from $100 million to $1 billion.