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Read Full BioPolice in Russia’s Saint Petersburg have arrested 16 people in a raid on an underground casino, as a nationwide crackdown on illegal betting intensifies.
Per the Russian media outlet Vecherniy Saint Petersburg, Ministry of Internal Affairs officers stormed a building in the Leningrad Region of the city of Telmana on April 19.
Officers said the casino had been operating on a regular basis since it opened its doors to customers in summer 2024. A ministry spokesperson said: “Poker fans met to take part in tournaments on average twice a week. The owner of this illegal business made up to 300 thousand rubles ($3,650) from each tournament.”
Underground Casino Ran Orthodox Easter Special – Police
Police investigators said they had launched a criminal case against the arrestees. They have charged many of the suspects with conducting illegal entrepreneurship and organized crime.
The ministry released a video and photographs taken during the raid. These showed balaclava-clad police officers ordering suspects to lie flat on the casino floor as investigators checked the premises.
In one part of the video, officers push suspects to the ground while they move around the area.
Police said the casino operated in the attic of a commercial building. They arrested a 36-year-old suspected of running the casino. They added that they also arrested a casino administrator, as well as two croupiers, waitresses, and several patrons.
Officers said they seized two poker tables, chips, decks of cards, banknotes, two laptops, and 18 mobile phones.
Police said their examination of the phones had uncovered evidence of “incriminating correspondence.”
The organizers appear to have organized the April 19 poker tournament as an Orthodox Easter special event.
In one part of the video, a box containing a Kulich, a traditional Russian Easter cake, can be seen on a table.
Russian Casino Crackdown
In Sochi, meanwhile, Kommersant reported that prosecutors are set to try three residents suspected of operating an illegal casino from January 2023 to early 2024.
The trial comes after police raided a rented property on the city’s Makarenko Street in 2024. Officers seized cash at the scene, as well as mobile phones, poker tables, cards, and betting chips.
Moscow is stepping up a nationwide crackdown in response to a rise in illegal online and brick-and-mortar casinos.
In the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk this month, investigators charged two Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs detectives with operating an underground casino equipped with 32 slot machines and two poker tables.
