OREANDA-NEWS. December 5, 2008. Under the conditions of the financial crisis, Sverdlovsk deputies are ready to allow operations of national gambling facilities for another two years. The proposal to submit a relevant bill to the State Duma was initiated by Andrey Alshevskikh, a CPRF deputy of the regional Duma. In his opinion, it will enable the region to receive an additional amount of over1 billion rubles in the following year. Gaming business representatives support his initiative.

According to Mr Alshevskikh`s letter,the extension of the period of national gambling facilities` operations will make it possible to get additional revenues for the budget of the following year, which has been considerably cut down due to the crisis. “Sverdlovsk regional budget, adopted in three readings, has been reduced by 24.6 billion rubles; in particular, only the expenditure on free medical service – by 2.2 billion rubles. And the gaming business brought 1.2 billion rubles to the budget last year. I think the extension of its operations will enable us, at least partially, to make up for the reduction of the budget,” said the deputy. He also added that in case the bill is submitted to the State Duma, other regions will back the initiative as well. “All of them are now facing problems with filling their budgets, and the gaming business has always brought in stable revenues,” remarked Mr Alshevskikh. Be reminded that the ban for operations of gaming arcades and casinos in Russia is to come into effect as of June 30th, 2009.

According to Roman Dmitriev, the director of Mirage Ltd. (operating Villa Purbana Casino in Yekaterinburg), the businessmen will positively support the idea. “To our data, gaming arcades and casinos have already brought the regional budget 800 million rubles as income tax – through the 10 months of 2008, and we also pay the unified social tax and personal income tax. Therefore it would be more beneficial for the budget if our right for operations is preserved, and more beneficial for us, since we would not have to close our locations as of July of the following year,” believes Mr Dmitriev.
However, other members of the Parliament are cautious about Andrey Alshevskikh`s proposal.