MOSCOW — The Russian Orthodox Church has welcomed a nationwide shutdown of casinos and other gambling houses under a new law, which will restrict gaming to four remote investment-starved regions of the world’s biggest country.
“Gambling games imposed on every street corner deprived people of freedom and made them listen to deceitful promises,” said Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the Church and Society Department of the Russian Orthodox Church, soon after the new law took effect July 1, closing poker tables, roulette wheels and slot machines around the country.
Gambling in Russia will now be restricted to the four development zones of southern Krasnodar, the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, Siberia’s Altai region and Russia’s Far East.
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