Moscow to turn casinos into reading rooms

MOSCOW: Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov has called for the the city's ubiquitous gambling halls to be turned into libraries to raise falling reading rates in the capital, the mayor's office said on Wednesday.

"More than 2,000 gaming halls were opened in a short time in Moscow and we are now actively closing them down. Let's make book clubs out of gambling centres," Yury Luzhkov said in a statement from the mayor's office.

Under new legislation, the garish casinos that line city streets in Russia are to be closed down and moved to four major gambling zones that will be built around the country.

A city official at the meeting said half of Muscovites no longer bought books, 40 per cent did not read any books at all and 60 per cent did not subscribe to any publication.

Among other measures planned to boost reading rates, which used to be very high in Soviet times, are giving away books to new parents and opening more bookshops and libraries in Moscow.