EDITORIAL

“I’m shocked – shocked – there’s gambling going on here!”

With this immortal line from “Casablanca”, French police chief Claude Rains speaks for “poor corrupt” officials everywhere – just before the croupier hands him his winnings.

Just like in the movie, mostly when corrupt cops bust a casino it’s one they were offering protection to but need to make a show of closing down for the authorities.

Moscow is no exception to this. Since the government banished gambling to the four corners of the empire – Kaliningrad, the Altai Republic, Primorye in the Far East and Azov on the Black Sea – the illegal casino scene must be the city’s worst-kept secret.

As The Moscow News reported in May 2010, if law enforcement agencies really wanted to close down the city’s casinos all they would have to do is check out the VIP back rooms at former casinos on Novy Arbat and elsewhere, which never really closed down at all.

Could these illegal casinos have possibly been operating without several law enforcement agencies being fully aware of their operations? It seems hardly likely.

Just like in another Hollywood movie, “L.A. Confidential,” tabloid hacks collude with corrupt cops to stage celebrity pot busts. In Moscow, the way it has tended to work is that “secret” casinos are busted for TV cameras, a few million dollars are confiscated – and precious few arrests or court cases ever happen.

The racket became nastier, though, after Moscow region casinos got caught in the crossfire of a war between rival clans of prosecutors, security services and businessmen.

And now the British CEO of Storm International, Darren Keane, is in jail over gambling charges and faces a serious health risk from thrombosis. This is clearly a more dangerous situation.

Whatever the endgame is – and Keane’s supporters fear a “new Magnitsky” horror in Moscow’s jails – it’s clear that the charade over illegal gambling has gone on long enough.

It may be that the authorities are waiting for some pretext to make gambling legal again, and bring the business out of Moscow’s shadows.

Let’s hope the move toward regulation doesn’t require a victim first. No one wants to see another Magnitsky, after all.