Media commentators have justified the restrictive legislation in terms of protecting the youth from gambling problems, reducing social costs of problem gambling, breaking the ties between legal gambling and organized crime, protecting the lower socioeconomic groups from gambling, safeguarding the Russian identity, but ...
In 2009, gambling was banned almost everywhere in Russia. The only exceptions are four specific arranged zones, namely "Altai Palace" in the Altai Republic, "Sobranie" in Kaliningrad, "Casino Sochi" in Krasnaya Polyana near Sochi and "Shambala" and "Tigre de Cristal" in Artyom near Vladivostok.
