Are there many places to play poker in Russia?

Are there casino's or card rooms?

Would love to find out some more information.

poker is illegal in russia.

There are card rooms in Russia. John Varhaus wrote an article in Cardplayer about it a couple months back.

Putin closed the casinos and card rooms in July, but you can find "underground" games damn near any where.

Edit: Anything "big" in Russian poker has just moved to Kiev.

Oh, very interesting thanks for all the responses so far.

In Australia Poker is Legal in the casinos & bars & hotels host a free type of poker.

There are of course underground games as well in Australia.


How strict is the policing of underground games in Russia?

So the Ukraine has Poker then, right?

Are Russian banned from playing Poker online?

Thankfully not, as they are easiest players to beat online.

Do you really think that? You are mistaken. It is not necessary to divide players by a territorial principle.

yep
nope

Dude this is total BS. Tournament Poker is totally legal in Russian . I talked to my friend from Russia just couple of days ago and he said that they have bunch of card rooms all over the town.
P.S. I'll bet those games are soft as ****
P.P.S. Not sure about the cash games
http://www.pokerpages.com/poker-news...ill--29639.htm

lol, no more poker in Kiev too. Belorussia is the closest country to play off-line.

what happened in the ukraine?? the have a law change or what? is it only forbidden in kiev or in odessa aswell, woud be very sad..

It's the law all over Ukraine. Odessa is in Ukraine too.

so since when poker is forbidden in ukraine?

Happened shortly after Russia, River Palace closed it's gambling facilities at the end of the Summer - and altho' touranment poker is operating in a legally grey area in Russian law, legally grey areas in Russian law generally get you robbed or killed i.e. it's not worth it. Oh well, gives the Baltic states an excellent chance to turn into an Eastern European Las Vegas before Russia gets its act together and opens its designated gambling regions. It's doubtful Russia will shut down online gambling tho', gambling isn't illegal in Russia it's just restricted to designated areas - therefor gambling online can be justified by where the servers are placed (outside Russian jurisdiction).

looks like there is some recent changes in the ukraine,
look here this looks quite recent
http://pokerineurope.com/pokerclubs/...ountry=Ukraine

anyone has experiences about this casinos?