Slots, roulette wheel crap out in Moscow

MOSCOW, July 1 (UPI) -- Muscovites flocked to casinos for a last chance at beating the slots and roulette before they were removed from Moscow casinos under a new law, observers said.

As of Wednesday, gambling in Moscow was restricted to lotteries, bookmakers and poker in licensed sports clubs, The Moscow Times reported. The one-armed bandits and roulette wheels will be shipped to four distant gambling zones of Russia, which have yet to be developed.

Several larger Moscow casinos and gaming halls closed ahead of the deadline. The Arbat casino closed its doors Monday and workers hauled out furniture Tuesday, the Times said. Kristall, Metelitsa, Imperia and Golden Palace also closed by Tuesday.

"We are law-abiding citizens and have decided to close ahead" of the deadline, a Golden Palace spokeswoman told RIA-Novosti.

Casino owners told the Times they weren't interested in moving to the new gambling zones -- the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, Siberia's Altai region, Primorye on the Pacific coast and the border of the southern Krasnodar and Rostov regions. The four zones need an estimated $40 billion in investment to be developed.

"Are we going to move? Of course we are not," Kristall owner Konstantin Kopylov said. "You cannot run a business on someone's wish. Business is run in the areas where a profit can be made."