Dark Days in Mother Russia; Poker has been de-listed as a ’sport’
I took a few days off to do personal things and now I am paying for my indulgence by being swamped at work which is why posting is rather slow but I do notice this little gem at the Moscow Times wherein poker is being ‘de-listed’ as an official sport by the Russian government.
A government order has stripped poker of its status as a sport in Russia, closing a loophole that allowed some former casinos to remain open as card halls after new restrictions on gambling took effect this month.
The Russian Federation of Sport Poker complained in a statement Tuesday that the change left it unclear whether amateur poker players were now breaking the law. But the government appears to have taken its stand, with police and prosecutors threatening a crackdown and Vitaly Mutko, minister of sports, tourism and youth politics, telling Vedomosti on Monday that “poker doesn’t exist as a sport.” A decree published on the ministry’s web site said the decision was made Friday by a ministerial commission.
Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and Prosecutor General Yury Chaika specifically mentioned poker in a joint decree on Monday, calling on their officers to “decisively ?lamp down on illegal gambling activity, including that done on the Internet, through poker clubs, fruit machines, etc.”
“We are in mourning,” Dmitry Lesnoi, head of the Russian Federation of Sport Poker, wrote in an emotional statement on the group’s web site. He said the ruling left it unclear whether private poker games were now illegal and whether playing on the Internet or promoting poker was permitted.
No need for Russian card players to totally despair as bridge, governmentally speaking, is still in good standing as a sport.
