Albania<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Albanian ban was approved in October, and became effective this year, outlawing lucrative sports betting and prohibiting betting shops in cities. The lottery and televised bingo remain.<\/p>\n
Until the ban, there were some approximately 4,300 betting shops in Albania in a nation of 2.1 million adults, Balkan Insight <\/em>reported. Legal gaming had provided some 7,000 jobs in Albania, but illegal gambling makes up 80 percent of actual gambling taking place in the country, according to Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama.<\/p>\nWhy Balkan Casinos Are Closing<\/h2>\n
\u201cCountries are under pressure to control money laundering through casinos, but it is domestic realities in Albania and Kosovo that have contributed to these closures,\u201d <\/strong>Louise Shelley, who is director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center and a University Professor at George Mason University, told Casino.org<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cViolence and organized crime have destabilized Albania and Kosovo and the recent casino violence has generated a strong government counter-response in Albania,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
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Shelley — who was a member of the Global Agenda Council on Illicit Trade and Organized Crime — of the World Economic Forum — and was co-chair of its Council on Organized Crime — noted casinos may generate tens of millions in revenues for Albania, \u201cbut the social costs seem to exceed the financial gains for the state.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nIn 2017, legal games of chance — which includes casinos, betting shops, lotteries and other kinds of legal gambling — reported a profit of 16 billion Albanian leke (US $143.3 million), according to Prishtina Insight<\/em>.<\/p>\nMurder in Albania<\/h2>\n
The Balkans are no stranger to murders. Albania, for instance, ranked 106th globally, (5 per 100,000 people for a recent year) when it comes to homicides, based on data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.<\/p>\n
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The US State Department reported in 2018 that \u201corganized crime continues to remain a concern for most Albanians with a network of criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, extortion, bribery, money laundering, prostitution, and human trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Recent crime statistics indicate a decrease in numerous types of violent crimes, but when Albania was considering the ban, members of parliament reported getting \u201ccriminal threats,\u201d Balkan Insight <\/em>said.<\/p>\nNumbers for Kosovo crimes were not published by the UN.<\/p>\n
In 2012, the State Department warned that in Kosovo, \u201cCriminals often commit crimes while armed with handguns, as weapons are fairly easy to obtain.\u201d\u00a0There were also \u201corganized crime groups\u201d operating in the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Violent murders of two casino workers in Kosovo — in separate robberies this month — has led the Balkan nation to stop most forms of gambling for the next 10 years. The move was approved by the cabinet on Tuesday and by the parliament on Thursday — with only the lottery remaining in place. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":101769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Kosovo Casino Murder-Robberies Prompt Decade-Long Gambling Ban<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n