Official of the Tatarstan State Council offers to legalize gambling business

The member of the United Russia faction in the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan Nikolay Rybushkin addressed his colleagues with an appeal to come forward with an initiative on the repeal of a ban on gambling.

Such an idea was presented by Nikolay Rybushkin during the meeting of the parliamentary committee on state-building and local governance when discussing a draft budget for the next year.

The official stated that legalization of gambling business will attract investments to the Republic, while the increase of the revenue derived from taxes will solve the problem of budget deficit.

The initiative wasn’t transformed into a draft law yet, and unlikely it will. There was a lively discussion of the idea, but it didn’t get grassroots support of the United Russia party members. A rule of thumb states that the topic of gambling control by means of bans is more popular.

Recently, the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan tabled a bill to the State Duma, regarding the introduction of fines for visiting illegal gambling houses and toughening of penalties for organizers of gambling activities.