From Russia With Love

Gambling in Russia becomes illegal as from today, there will be four designated gambling areas and that will be it. At first glance it seems strange for a government to ban something which brings in 1 billion dollars in tax a year, it will also put an estimated half million workers out of a job. But desperate times call for desperate measures, there has a been a massive rise in gambling addiction in Russia, after the collapse of communism the sudden freedom afforded to the population has spawned a gambling culture that has got out of control, money lending and money laundering are just two other by products. No support groups or counselling over there its straight for the jugular with the cure, If only our rulers could be so decisive. In the UK we have gone the other way by increasing the amount of ways people can lose their hard earned cash. bookmakers have turned their shops into mini Las Vegas's with wall to wall slot machines,horse racing from all around the world, Dogs, Football, Cricket, Tennis, Rugby you name it, it's available to be bet on. In fact you can bet on just about anything nowadays, staring from 8 am in the morning to 9pm at night. For those days where the weather interferes with the racing programme there are virtual horse and dog racing cards, with predetermined results, that you can throw your money at. Who would have thought we could ever envy a Russian government, there are not many things we can take from the Russians but this is something we should.