Gran Scala

Croupiers in Russia will roll the dice for the last time on Tuesday night as a ban on gambling comes into force in all but four remote regions.

Casinos and slot machine emporiums have been outlawed and other forms of gambling restricted to four, as yet undeveloped zones.

Betting at horse races is still allowed, although football fans can no longer bet at matches.

The law, first suggested in 2006 by then president Vladimir Putin, has been billed as an attempt to stop wasteful spending and improve the moral health of the nation.

Experts say the gambling industry has an annual turnover of about $6bn while underground gaming was estimated to earn at least twice as much.

Casino owners said the ban would drive gaming underground and put more than 350,000 people out of work during a time when unemployed in Russia is already soaring.

Storm International, which operates five of Moscow’s glitziest casinos, said it would lay off 5,000 workers after the close of business on Wednesday. Other casino operators are expected to do the same.

Samil Binder, the deputy executive director of the Russian association for the development of the gaming business, said the plan to build new, Las Vegas style gaming zones would require $40bn to $45bn of investment and was a “stillborn idea.”

”The government is prepared to invest and invest in enterprises like AvtoVaz [Russia’s biggest auto-maker] and get nothing in return, but it won’t spend anything on the gaming business,” he said.

The Russian Orthodox Church said the ban proved that Russia was “quite a strong society, capable of correction.”

“We can get the better of illegal underground gaming, the threat of alcohol, the proliferation of pornography and all the phenomena that destroy a man’s spirit and the moral conscience of the people,” it said.

Casinos and gaming halls were forbidden in the Soviet era but mushroomed in the freewheeling 1990’s when Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first president was in power.

Sergey Mironov, the speaker of the upper house of parliament, said the unregulated gaming industry had facilitated “money laundering, wrecked the work ethic and criminalised society.”

Mr Binder said casino owners began relocating abroad when the law was first introduced and those left behind are expected to do the same.