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Costa Rica to block Russian casino kingpin

Costa Rican government officials are working hard to produce new laws effectively blocking the arrival of the Russian casino enterprise, Storm International.  Storm International is the largest casino group in Russia and is being pushed out of the country due to new anti-gambling laws passed by president Vladimir Putin.  With these new laws the Russian enterprise started to look for greener pastuers and Costa Rica with it’s millions of tourists and high end hotels seemed to be the obvious next step.

Costa Rican vice-president Laura Chincilla said the government is working on and will soon pass new regulations to prevent the Russian casino group from operating in Costa Rica.  Part of the reason for the call to action was that Storm International stated part of their interest in Csota Rica stemmed from the strict regulations in Russia, there-by implying Costa Rica was an easier country to operate in.  Costa Rican officials seemed to take offense to that, perhaps in part due to their recent problems with illegal immigrants, drug trafficking, and mafia groups from Columbia, China, and Taiwan.

The new regulations will prevent new casinos starting up as independent businesses - they will need to be part of a hotel and can not be the primary focus of the new business.  the new restrictions focus on a fixed percentage of hotel floor space being alloted to the casino as well as alcohol permits, age limits, and operating times.  The pre-existing casinos in Costa Rica, like the Fiesta chain, will be allowed to carry on with business as usual since they were in business before the new regulations were passed.  Another reason is closing existing casinos would require the Costa Rican government to pay millions of dollars in severance and compensation fees.  Most people agree that these new regulations will only serve as a hurdle, not a road block, to the Russian casino giants.  Rumor has it that they were already interested in opening a luxury hotel and a casino, and these new laws may just force them to adjust their plans and combine the new projects.