Russia’s diplomatic relations, meanwhile, soured with neighboring Georgia over a damaging spy scandal. With a large percentage of the gaming industry controlled or overseen by Georgians — much of it rumored to be mafia-linked — the government appeared to be sending a message that it was cracking down on organized crime.

Many casino owners say they’d sooner take their business to nearby Belarus and Kyrgyzstan than relocate to the zones.

Bettors, meanwhile, are expected to turn in their thousands to online gaming or poker, which is classified as a sport.

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, a prominent critic of the gambling industry, said Tuesday he would now turn his attention to Internet gambling and poker halls.

“We’ve approached the government for a decision on poker clubs and Internet gambling for cash, which is pretty much the same as the gambling business,” Luzhkov told Itar Tass. “Poker clubs — how can you say that’s a sport?”

Starting Wednesday, casinos and slot machines will be allowed to operate only in Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, the Primorsky region on the Pacific coast, the mountainous Altai region in Siberia and near the southern cities of Krasnodar and Rostov, host to the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

It could take five years before some of the outposts are ready to open their doors. In two, not even the location has been settled on.

In the meantime, gambling will go underground, critics fear, creating a breeding ground for corruption and organized crime.

“It could very well turn out to be Russia’s Prohibition,” said Chris Weafer, a strategist at Uralsib Bank in Moscow, referring to the U.S. drinking ban in the 1920s that rapidly proved unenforceable and ushered in organized crime. “People are not going to give up their gambling fix that easily.”