City Hall to eye gambling houses

The City Hall will institute a rigorous control over the gambling institutions. Interim mayor Veaceslav Iordan requested the Trade Municipal Department at the City Hall session on Monday, March 19to inspect all the gambling houses in Chisinau. He said that “after Putin closed down theses institutions in Russia, they all moved to Chisinau.” Iordan told reporters that the City Hall will fight with the owners of the gambling houses who allow children to play slot machines during the lessons hours. The children are prohibited to enter the facilities during 8:00-12.00 and 14:00-17.00. Head of the Department Valentina Constantinov told Info-Prim Neo that the activity licenses of the casinos and gambling institutions are issued by the Licensing Chamber, so that the Department issues only location licenses. In this way, the cited source says that it can not influence the activity of these companies. About 10 casinos and gambling houses work in Chisinau at the moment. On Thursday, March 15, the Chisinau Municipal Council approved the tax of MDL 2700 for each slot machine. On the whole the collected money could amount to MDL 50 mln. Previously, casinos were paying a tax of MDL 12 mln. According to the City Hall, the value of the tax collected from the gambling business constituted only MDL 245.7 thousand in 2006.