Gamblor’s World

at http://www.fyodordostoevsky.com/etexts/the_gambler.txt

June 13th, 2005 |

The great grandson of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky has sued Russia’s nationwide sports lottery for using the author’s image on lottery tickets. Hounded by debt and creditors, Dostoyevsky struggled with his gambling addiction for much of his life. (courtesy NPR news see http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4521792)

Herald News Services, Tuesday, March 13, 2007

It is either Russia’s society wedding of the year — or its biggest practical joke.

Mikhail Prokhorov, the country’s most eligible billionaire, is getting married in a $10-million US ceremony on a paradise island. To win a bet. Allegedly.

Russian tabloids are abuzz with rumours that Prokhorov, who is worth an estimated $14.2 billion, is planning a whirlwind marriage on May 3, his 42nd birthday, to honour a wager he made in his youth.

One even named his bride-to-be as the blonde socialite Ksenia Sobchak, a Russian “It” girl whose family is friends with President Vladimir Putin.

Prokhorov apparently intends to fly out 700 of his closest friends for a lavish wedding party on two islands in the Maldives, with unmarried guests housed on Kurumba and married ones on nearby Paradise.

Prokhorov, it was said, would journey to Paradise only after the marriage ceremony. His bet won, the five-day bash would end with an equally swift divorce for a man whose commitment to a bachelor lifestyle of wild parties and women is legendary in Moscow.

The billionaire was arrested by French police investigating a suspected prostitution ring in the ski resort of Courchevel in January. He was released without charge, but the scandal prompted Putin, his wealthy business partner, to insist on a division of assets in their company, Norilsk Nickel.

© The Calgary Herald

Gudermes, February 20, Interfax

‘I am firmly convinced that the gambling business is more dangerous to the people in Russia, to its national security, than drugs which are universally believed to be a terrible evil’, Kadyrov told journalists in Gudermes on Tuesday.

He said drugs was something one can still get over through great efforts, while ‘a person dependent on gambling is capable of anything, even killing his parents and innocent people to get money’.

Kadyrov said with confidence that ‘the gambling business should have been banned throughout Russia at once, just as we did in Chechnya’.

‘Some make easy money on it and probably share it with some officials and thus the problem remains insoluble’, he believes.

‘I don’t understand them. I don’t understand why it happens so. It is impossible to understand why they don’t realize what this business will lead to ultimately. It should be closed immediately and at once rather then building cities for it. Where do we go again?’ he added.

He also said that 80% of the population in Russia would certainly vote against the gambling business.

‘When I closed the gambling business in Chechnya, the mass media began to accuse me of introducing underhand the sharia law. But you will find not a single person in Chechnya who would regret that there are no gambling machines here. One day I gathered everybody who were involved in it and said their houses should be closed and promised them to help open new businesses and I kept by word’, the acting president of Chechnya said.

Statement by the Sacred Koinotos of the Holy Mountain Athos

Berel Lazar: Russia’s role on world scene to be clarified within the next two or three years

www.5d.ru © 1991-2007 Interfax, religion@interfax.ru

For a map of the four zones where gambling will be permitted after July
2009 see:

http://www.timesonl ine.co.uk/ article/0, ,13509-2513598, 00.html

The zones, which are currently infrastructure- free wilderness, are
located in the Altai region in Siberia, the rainy Pacific coast region
of Primorsky, the Kaliningrad area along the Baltic coast and an area
in Russia’s south between Rostov and Krasnodar.
http://www.guardian .co.uk/worldlate st/story/ 0,,-6293690, 00.html

AFP, 16/12/06, Globe and Mail

Russian lawmakers approved yesterday, on second reading, a draft law that will allow casinos in only four special zones from 2009, and toughen rules for gambling halls with slot machines. The four zones are Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave located between Poland and Lithuania, along with the far eastern region of Primorye, the mountainous Altai region in Siberia and an as yet undecided area in southwest Russia. The government will rule on the exact location of the gambling zones. The law, which was put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin, will also get rid of many of the small gambling halls that are ubiquitous in Russian cities.

© Copyright 2006 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc.

The following article in Radio Free Europe gives further fascinating insights into the Russian gambling crackdown.

http://www.rferl. org/featuresarti cle/2006/ 10/173CA5A4- 5784-4BFC- 899A-5206CF8D070 D.html

Here are some passages from the article:

Putin pulled no punches in criticizing the country’s gambling industry.

In regaining state oversight of the gambling sector, he could take control one of the most rapidly growing and problematic sectors of the Russian economy. In addition, the Kremlin could also benefit by using the growing antigambling movement as a populist platform ahead of the 2007-08 parliamentary elections.

Following on the recent High Court industrial relations decision, the harm caused by the gambling industry and the public concern could be used by the Liberal federal government to gain popularity and at the same time tighten federal control over the states in this key economic area.

The four large federal zones, according to the bill, should be created in uninhabited and undeveloped areas.

Duma Speaker Gryzlov revealed that Vladivostok is in the running for a federal zone during a visit to the city on October 7. He said that the Far East gambling center should attract gamblers from Southeast Asia. "Our neighbors, the Japanese and Chinese, are excitable people, let them come and play here."

Meanwhile, the president of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, has touted the republic’s location just hours by air from Turkey, Israel, and numerous Arab states, where gambling is prohibited.