Bloody dramas sweep over Moscow gaming halls

Armed criminals raid Moscow slot bars on regular basis

A lot of Russians have been attracted to slot machines recently. The passion for gambling, however, leads to lamentable and even lethal consequences. Gaming halls and slot bars frequently turn to the scenes of bloody dramas. 

Two people were killed and one severely wounded in one of such halls in Moscow yesterday. It is far from being the only incident not only in the Russian capital, but in the Russian province too.

A group of armed men burst into the slot-machine hall at 6 a.m. yesterday. NTV television network reported, the assaulters killed the security guard, a visitor and wounded the cashier. Having stolen the money, the criminals vanished from the locality. The special “Volcano-5” plan to capture the killers was announced in Moscow.

Spokesmen for the police administration said the latest attack on the gaming hall was the tenth incident since the beginning of the year. Many of the incidents ended tragically. The previous attack occurred in Moscow on July 23rd. A female operator of the gaming hall on Kustanayskaya Street, a citizen of Latvia, called the police at night. The woman said three men burst into the hall at 2 a.m., tied her hands up with adhesive tape and drew a knife on her. The men stole the money, gold earrings and took nine slot machines out of the hall. The damage totaled 1.7 million rubles. Investigation is underway.

The last attack with a tragic outcome took place in Moscow on May 30th. Two people were killed in one of the halls in Moscow's north-eastern administrative district one Sunday morning. Investigators determined the hall had been raided; the killed people were the hall's employees.

If the situation does not change for the better, owners of gaming halls will have to hire security guards for every slot-machine and provide bullet-proof jackets to visitors and personnel.