Ukraine bans gaming parlours after fire

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament slapped a blanket ban on casinos and gaming parlours on Friday, a week after fire tore through a hall filled with slot machines, killing nine people.

A law imposing the ban, pending new legislation moving gambling establishments outside city centres, secured 340 votes in the assembly, far more than the 226 required to pass.

Gambling halls, many of them small, dimly lit and dingy, have sprung up throughout towns and cities in Ukraine and other ex-Soviet states since the fall of communism in 1991.

Officials last week blamed last week's blaze in a gaming hall in the central city of Dnipropetrovsk on blatant violations of fire regulations.

"The tragedy in Dnipropetrovsk shows we can no longer put off a decision on the problem of the gaming business," Natalya Korolevska, a senior deputy, told the chamber.

"This has now become a general disease in our society, with 75 percent of customers being students and schoolchildren."

Officials in Ukraine have long debated calls to move casinos into specially designated areas on the outskirts of cities.

The law, to be signed by President Viktor Yushchenko, bars a variety of gambling institutions, including casinos, halls with slot machines, bookmaking shops and internet gambling.

Lotteries, sports and literary competitions and games like billiards involving cash prizes are not affected.