Kazakhstan Bans Casinos and Slot Machine Arcades in Major Cities

If you’re planning a trip to Almaty, the commercial capital of Kazakhstan, you may want to scratch casinos and slot machine arcades off of your list of things to do. In fact, city officials announced Tuesday that these pastimes had been all but eradicated.

This is due to a law introduced in January which ended gambling in big cities beginning on March 31st. The problem stemmed from the fact that many casinos were used as fronts for such criminal activities as money laundering.

Casinos also seemed to be on every street corner, mainly due to an explosion of such businesses in the 90s. They were so popular that owners could usually expect to make back their investment within only two months.

Casinos may now only operate in two small resort towns, Kapshagai and Shchuchinsk. Inspections are conducted daily to make sure that these businesses comply.

In the early stages, the city of Almaty even offered casino owners assistance with moving into other lines of work. Nobody accepted this offer, so the next step was an outright ban. But even this didn’t seem to entirely discourage people from trying. After the law was published in January, there were at least 5 businessman who applied for gambling licenses.

I wonder if Borat Sagdiyev has reported on this?

Kazakhstan Bans Casinos and Slot Machine Arcades in Major Cities