A new Russian legislation amendment will tag gambling addicts as incompetent, comparing them with alcoholics and drug addicts. The label “incompetent” will restrict an addicted gambler’s rights and freedoms, and will place them under the guidance of a guardian.
The amendment, signed by president Putin on Friday Jan 4th2013, will enable Russian authorities for empowering a guardian, a person who will have the competence to control the gambler’s finances, including any form of income they may have, whether it may be salary based or pension.
However, a flaw remains in legally defining what is an addicted gambler or gambling abuser. So far the Russian law amendment doesn’t fully contemplate additional details on fully determining what is problem gambling.
Regulations on gambling have taken a long and windy road in Russia, dating back to 2009 when the Russian government banned land based casinos in some areas (although not in the most touristic ones), which pushed this thriving business into a decline, forcing many companies to concentrate on just a few cities, with some of them fleeing out of the country or going underground.
The legislation will come into effect once it is officially published, even though no information about any gambling committee or guardianship association has been established.
