MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin on Monday submitted a bill to parliament that would turn Crimea into a legal gambling zone as Russia seeks ways to lift the Black Sea peninsula out of poverty.
Russia has only four official government zones where gambling is legal. Crimea, which was annexed by Russia last month amid international condemnation, would be the fifth such zone.
The precise borders of new gambling zone will be determined by regional authorities in "the Republic of Crimea", the bill states.
The legislation is unlikely to meet any resistance in Russia's parliament, which is tightly controlled by the Kremlin.
Russia's existing gambling zones are near the Pacific port of Vladivostok, the Altai region, the southern Krasnodar region and near the Western exclave of Kaliningrad.
The zones were created after Putin brought in tough new anti-gambling laws in 2009 that saw casinos shut down across the entire rest of the country.
Analysts suggest that attracting investor capital to the gambling zones has not been easy.
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