altogether. He claimed that Sun International would keep an eye on the evolving situation and called Russia a "high-potential leisure market". The group announced its plans to build a casino complex last October with Russian Belaya Dacha Group near Moscow. At the time, Coutts-Trotter said the plans would depend on the legislative situation. At the beginning of the year, the Russian parliament passed a new law that will restrict gaming to four remotely situated gaming reservations in the Kalingrad region, on the Baltic Sea; the Primorye and Alta regions, on the Pacific; and a region on the Black Sea shore, incorporating territory of the Rostov and Krasnodar regions. Coutts-Trotter said "The first step is to deal with the proliferation, especially in Moscow city, of thousands of virtually unregulated gambling outlets. Closures have already begun and by mid-2009 this process will be complete. The new legislation also aims to encourage investment in remote rural areas, and thus gambling will in due course be permitted in very remote zones.”

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