Word: bans
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...neon lights are no longer flashing; the roulette wheels have spun their last turn. Casinos across Russia closed their doors Wednesday as a sweeping ban on gambling went into effect, less than a week after a similar ban hit neighboring Ukraine. Lawmakers in both countries say the actions were necessary to bring under control spiraling addiction and a notoriously shady business. But critics say the moves will leave hundreds of thousands out of work and force the industry underground...
...ban - which affects not only casinos but also slot machines and bookmakers - is set to push up unemployment levels in one of the regions already hardest hit by the economic crisis. In Russia, an estimated 400,000 people will be put out of work, and in Ukraine, "overnight, 200,000 workers have been left without a job," says Hryhoriy Trypulsky, vice president of the Ukrainian Association of Gambling Operators. "The legislation has been rushed through without any thought of the consequences...
...Russia had been planning its ban for some time, with parliament passing legislation in 2006 that would restrict gambling to four remote areas as of July 1 this year. But Ukrainian lawmakers were slower off the mark and only sprang into action in May, after nine people were killed in a fire at a slot-machine hall in Dnipropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine. After the fire brought national attention to an industry that was already widely frowned upon, lawmakers pounced. The legislation they passed places a temporary ban on gambling while plans are drawn up to restrict gambling to special zones...
...AIDS and tuberculosis," says the law's author, Valeriy Pysarenko, a parliamentary deputy from Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's party. "It is destroying the Ukrainian nation on a moral level." Gambling has boomed across Russia and Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991; before the ban, Ukraine boasted more than 100,000 legal gambling establishments, ranging from flashy casinos to dingy slot-machine halls. (See a video on the casino bet made by Bethlehem...
...vaunted noble aims, the law has drawn heavy criticism. With presidential elections scheduled for January, Tymoshenko's opponents and the country's casino workers accuse the Prime Minister of using the gambling ban to enhance her hard-earned reputation as a supporter of working-class voters - a poll by the Kiev-based Horshenin Institute in May showed that 82% are in favor of the law. "She has scored a few political points at our expense," says the River Palace's Stupak. President Viktor Yushchenko vetoed the law, calling it "populist," only to have his decision overturned by parliament. And Interior...