Russian President Vladimir Putin says he opposes turning Sochi into a gambling resort after the Olympics.
The possibility reportedly had been aired late last year by Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev as a means to offset some of the costs of the 2014 Winter Olympics, the most expensive in history. But Putin said he wants the Black Sea city to maintain its reputation among tourists as family-friendly.
“We already have a gambling zone on the border between the Rostov Region and the Krasnodar Territory, and we even allowed them to access the Black Sea coast,” Putin said at a recent meeting in the city. “In my opinion, it would be impractical to set up another zone in the region, although it would certainly make things better for investors.”
The Kremlin banned gambling in Russia in 2009, except for four outlying zones: in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad; near Vladivostok in the Far East; in the southern Krasnodar territory; and in Siberia’s Altai region.
Putin said turning Sochi into a gambling zone “would create an atmosphere that would prevent our citizens from spending their holiday here with their families.”
Rather, he said, the priority for the coming years should be to make the most of the infrastructure built for the Olympics, which reportedly cost more than US$50 billion.
“We should put into operation everything that had been created and ensure that it works efficiently.”
