MOSCOW, December 5 - RAPSI. The Interior Ministry has proposed introducing criminal liability for people who go to illegal gambling institutions, and for individuals who let premises to the business's organizers, Denis Sugrobov, head of the Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Department at the Interior Ministry, said.

At the State Duma roundtable on combating illegal gambling, Sugrobov said that there are up to 500,000 institutions of this kind operating in Russia.

"We have proposed stipulating criminal liability for organizing this sort of business and we also suggest increasing fines and introducing administrative liability for gamblers and for those who let the premises," Sugrobov said.

He said that at the moment an organizer of an illegal gambling institution can only be brought to criminal liability if it can be proved that his income amounted to a minimum of 1.5 million rubles ($48,396)