(AsiaGameHub) –   Amid massive ongoing fiscal pressure from the war weighing heavily on the country, Vladimir Putin is seeking to leverage expanded gambling to ease the strain on Russia’s economy.

According to reports, Putin has approved the establishment of a sixth designated gambling zone in Russia, where gambling is otherwise illegal outside of these special areas.

The new gambling zone will be located in the mountainous Altai Republic, a choice that appears to reflect a focus on positioning gambling as a tourist attraction rather than an amenity for local residents, matching the location strategy of existing zones in areas including Crimea, Sochi, Krasnodar, Primorye and Kaliningrad.

Furthermore, the gambling zone will be built adjacent to and integrated with the Manzherok ski resort, further emphasizing its close connection to the tourism industry.

Reports indicate that developers project roughly 300 million rubles (£2.95 million) in tax revenue will come from this project, an amount that is seen as a meaningful boost to Russia’s overall economic position.

Russia implemented a national ban on most gambling in 2009. However, the country has gradually opened a series of special gambling zones in the years that followed.

This latest addition is the second gambling zone within the Altai region, and the sixth across the entire country. The very first gambling zone, designated in 2007, was located in the Altai region, but it was not completed and opened until 2014. The most recent zone created before this one was established in Crimea in 2017

Putin has long opposed expanded gambling and has viewed the industry as severely harmful to Russian society. Even so, he has reluctantly recognized through the opening of these special zones that the sector works as an effective economic tool.

One of the newer gambling developments in Sochi has contributed a large share of total tax revenue from all Russian gambling zones, totaling around 765 million rubles (£7.3 million) according to media reports.

Altai has long ranked among the lowest-performing regions in terms of gambling-related tax revenue. However, the Russian government remains optimistic that the region’s revenue potential is far higher than current levels, as it works to build a new revenue stream in the area.

Visitor numbers to Russia’s gambling zones have also risen, adding more pressure on the Ministry of Finance to advance gambling regulation reform, or at a minimum, move forward with expanding the number of allowed gambling zones.