Russia used to allow gambling, but as it becomes more and more clear that the days of old communist Russia are not completely dead and gone we see the Russian government impeding on the rights of their people.  The Russian government has been closing down casinos in the country.  The reasoning is that it is for the health of the nation.  It truth it just seems like another measure of control over personal freedom when a government forbids people to spend their money the way they want to.

There are now only one third of the casinos that once stood in Russia still in extant.  They can hardly be called casinos anymore since now they mostly just sell lottery tickets.  However, no big surprise, outlawing casinos have not led to people no longer gambling.  Instead many people are turning to online casinos and Internet gambling.  Almost as quickly as brick and mortar casinos have shut down, cyber cafes allowing people access to online casinos have sprung up. 

The Russian government is doing all they can to stop the spread of online casino but there is only so much they can do.  Sure they can raid Internet cafes and shut down casinos, but they can not make their way into the household of every Russian.  Although at this rate is does not seem that Russia is above censoring their Internet and blocking access to all online casino sites.  Russian officials claim that shutting down gambling operations has not taken away very much from the countries tax revenue stream, only about .5 percent.