They're hungry and they're everywhere: at stands on roadsides, in entrances to apartment buildings, in food stalls and restaurants and on subway platforms.
And as coin-operated slot machines continue to proliferate almost by the hour in both urban and rural areas throughout Russia, so too are the numbers of small-time gambling addicts multiplying in what remains a relatively poor country.
PHOTO: AFP
"The number of pathological gamblers has exploded" in Russia in the past four years, said Alexei Magalif, a psychiatrist in a private clinic specializing in treatment of gambling addiction.
The growth of a peculiarly Russian brand of capitalism over the past decade or so has been accompanied by all manner of sociological change and new-found freedoms, many of them enjoyed and some leaving the wreckage of people's lives behind them.
"There is no information on treatment for people like me, even though advertising for casinos and gaming halls is everywhere," lamented Ruslan, a 38-year-old man whose hard-core gambling for 15 years cost him his business and other possessions.
In most slot machines in Russia, the minimum deposit needed for a play is five rubles, or about US$0.15, just half the cost of a bus ticket.
The games are practically unregulated, meaning anyone from the country's few super-rich oligarchs to its many destitute pensioners, children and alcoholics can take a spin at the wheel of fortune.
"You can't even get into the store to buy milk in the evening because all the shopkeepers close up to go play the slots," complained one Moscow resident.
"The school principal cancels all meetings whenever she gets a little cash.
She wears the same dress every day, she's lost all her teeth, but she runs off to gamble every chance she gets," another resident said.
In the small town of Melenki about 180km east of Moscow, 67-year-old Nina began playing the "one-armed bandits" two years ago, hoping to pick up a little extra money at the end of each month.
Addictive thrill
After once winning 500 rubles (around US$17), an amount equivalent to one-third of her monthly retirement stipend, she was hooked.
Magalif attributed Russians' new passion for gambling partly to the fact that it is regarded as "an amusement that seems both democratic and affordable."
"Gamblers include intellectuals looking for thrills, very active types, playboys and older single women," Magalif said.
Valery Ivanov, chairman of the Russian Gaming Industry Association, said that the desire to gamble built up in people during the Soviet period when there was no legal gaming industry.
"They're just trying to make up now for lost time," he said.
Explosion in casinos
Ivanov said the Russian gaming market is among the most dynamic in the world at present.
In Moscow alone, where 40 percent of all Russia's gaming establishments are located, there are 55 full-fledged casinos, 2,200 gaming halls and 35,000 slot machines.
More than 150,000 people are employed in the gaming sector in the Russian capital, according to statistics provided by the association.
The number of gaming facilities has soared in the past two years due to a new system for granting licenses, a system Ivanov describes as far too liberal.
He said the Russian Federal Sports Agency delivers the required papers for payment of around US$40, but keeps no registry of owners and has no means of regulating the halls.
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