MOSCOW, April 15 - RAPSI. The police have clamped down on an illegal casino at the Moscow State University of Instrument Engineering and Computer Science (MGUPI), which earned its organizers up to 5 million rubles ($161,655) every day, the Interior Ministry reported on Monday.
The ministry said that four card tables, three roulette tables, 70 fruit machines, a large number of playing chips and cards, as well as a video and photo archive were seized during a raid at the university.
The illegal casino had bank-type steel doors, the rooms were divided by special gates hidden inside large cabinets, video recording equipment was installed throughout the premises, and an underground tunnel was being built for emergency evacuation.
MGUPI purports to be one of the country's leading universities in electromechanics, information gauging and control systems, information and telecommunication technology, robotics and mechatronics.
In accordance with the federal law on gaming, which became effective on July 1, 2009, all casinos were to be shut down or transferred to four gaming zones which were to be established for that purpose.
Despite the ban, the police regularly uncover and shut down illegal casinos and other gaming facilities which operate as Internet clubs and lotteries, or other such businesses.