Underground University Casino Shut Down

As the Russian News Agency RIA Novosti reports, the Moscovian police closed down an illegal casino located on the terrain of Moscow State University of Instrument Engineering and Informatics. They discovered four card tables, three roulettes tables and 70 slot machines at the venue. The police estimates that the casino gained an  income of three to filve million Rubles (about 73,000 to 122,000 Euros) daily.

Since 2009, Russia has banned gambling except for four appointed gaming zones where casinos and gambling houses are allowed to operate: the federal districts of Kaliningrad, Altai and Krimorsky, and the city of Azov, where the first legal casino was opened in 2010. However, illegal underground gambling is thriving. From the date the ban on gambling came to effect to the middle of 2012, over 400 illegal casinos and more than 36,000 illegal gambling venues had been discovered nationwide, according to the Russian Legal Information Agency.