A new law imposing severe restrictions on casinos and slot machine halls went into effect in Russia today. Under the new law, casinos and gaming halls will only be allowed to operate in four remote regions; Siberia, Kaliningrad, the Pacific Ocean coast and the eastern Primorye region.

A Russian gambling organisation said the new law will cost the government close to 1.5 billion euros in tax revenues and about 350,000 people will lose their jobs. The bill was signed in 2006 by then-resident Vladimir Putin who said gambling was a far stronger addiction than the addiction to alcohol.

President Dmitri Medvedev on Tuesday called on his fellow Russians to drink less alcohol. The health ministry has been told to develop an anti-alcohol campaign. Last week, the Lancet medical journal reported that alcohol-related diseases were responsible for almost 50 percent of deaths among Russians between the ages of 15 and 54.

In the 1980s, an anti-alcohol campaign started by Mikhail Gorbachev led to a dramatic increase in illegal alcohol production.