Existing casino operations in Russia will have to be moved to remote parts of the country such as the Primorie District, the Rostov and Krasnodar regions on the Black Sea, the Altai Republic, and the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. Though the move was set to go into place before June of 2009, the plan may now be delayed. The reason for that is a great number of requests from the industry asking to extend the deadline to move.

The plan was passed by legislators in 2006. All this time it’s been next to impossible to persuade the legislators to change the deadline, but “the lobbying efforts of the casino industry may just get the extension they are looking for”.

A lot is being spoken about the idea of using the infrastructure from Sochi which is being built in anticipation of the 2014 Winter Olympics, for a new gambling zone.