Moscow police raided casinos at the stroke of midnight to enforce a nationwide ban on gambling that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin engineered.
Hundreds of police and city officials descended on casinos and slot machine halls.
Also President Putin pushed through the ban in 2006 as part of an anti-vice campaign that included measures to curtail smoking and underage drinking.
The law that came into force in this days outlaws casinos and slot machine parlors everywhere but in four special zones being created in the far corners of the country, near the borders with North Korea, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and in the exclave of Kaliningrad between Lithuania and Poland.
Storm, bigger rival Ritzio Entertainment Group and other casino operators are now looking for opportunities in countries that are seeking to capitalize on the ban by relaxing visa rules.