BUSINESS

RIA Novosti

Russia will not be able to launch its new gaming zones in less than four or five years, the head of Russia's special economic zone regulator said on Thursday.

Under a 2007 law designed to curb gambling in major cities and boost economic growth in poorer regions, casinos and other gaming establishments are to be relocated from Moscow and other cities to four remote Russian centers - the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, Siberia, the Pacific coast, and southern Russia - by July 1.

"It is only realistic to speak about launching a [gaming] zone within four to five years," Andrei Alpatov, who heads Russia's Federal Agency for the Management of Special Economic Zones, told RIA Novosti.

He said it is impossible to reduce the time of procedures for project approval, land registration and expert appraisal under Russian law.

"Things can be sped up only by breaking the law," he warned.

According to regional authorities, the Siberian Coin gambling zone, to be located in south Siberia's Altai Territory, is the best prepared for investors. Active steps to build infrastructure around the adjacent Biriuzovaya Katun tourist zone are viewed as an advantage.

In an interview with RIA Novosti earlier this week, a spokesman for Storm International, one of Moscow's largest casino chains, cited poor infrastructure in the regions as the main barrier to Russia creating its own "Las Vegas" in special gaming zones.

Earlier chiefs in Primorye and the Azov Sea regions called for a delay in criminalizing gambling to give them more time to develop the infrastructure for the gaming zones.