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Gambling in the Soviet Union: prohibitions and underground
Introduction: Red flag "passion for risk"
The official Soviet doctrine saw gambling as a bourgeois relic. In practice, the craving for risk has not disappeared anywhere: she went to lotteries, household rates and underground "quatrans." The history of Soviet gambling is a pendulum between prohibition and need, between ideology and human nature.
NEP: short "official" flirtation with excitement (1920s)
Economic experiment. In the wake of partial market freedom, racetracks with a sweepstakes worked in some cities, there were cafes with card tables - under control and in a limited format.
Quick reversal. By the end of the decade, the course changed: sweepstakes were closed, and card establishments were curtailed as "socially harmful." The excitement again faded into the shadows.
1930s-1950s: rigid ideology and "everyday sins"
Party line. Excitement - "parasitism and speculation." The organization of dens and the game for money were punished, especially in conjunction with parasitism and currency fraud.
Household compromises. At the same time, in the evenings in communal apartments they played dominoes, lotto, preference - formally without money or for symbolic "interests."
Racecourses as a sport. Horse racing remained as spectacle and breeding work; there were officially no bets, but a half-shadow exchange "for the result" was spinning around.
State lotteries: A legal 'game of hope'
Monetary lottery. The state regularly issued lotteries to finance projects and sports.
Sportloto (since the 1970s). The most recognizable lottery of the late USSR: kiosks, receipts, television draws and cultural footprint (the film "Sportloto-82").
Why it worked. Lotteries gave a permitted channel of hope, accustomed to the ritual of a ticket and a "circulation day" without the stigma of the underground.
Underground: "quatrans," apartments, dormitories
Quatrans. Illegal apartments/basements with card tables, watches, a guard at the entrance and clear rules. They played preference, "point" (21), poker draw, less often - bakara.
Social slice. The audience is mixed: engineers and professors, shop workers and "farts," athletes, sailors, creative bohemia.
Safety procedures. Passwords, "looking," secluded cash desks, agreements with the "roof." In the case of a raid - "scattering" chips, legends about "evening without money."
Discipline of duty. Reputation was a currency: non-payment threatened not only with shame, but also with the visit of people "from the criminal world."
Street and station: thimbles, knuckles, small bets
Thimbles. Tourists and seasonalists were the target of street "magician players": a classic game with no chance of winning.
Bones and "matches." In the markets and in the hostel "for cigarettes" or "for the ruble."
Stadium culture. "Bet on the score" between the fans is an informal tradition, albeit without legal status.
Culture and mythology: from jokes to screens
Anecdotes and jargon. "Hand over," "broken card," "open" - the card language lived in everyday life.
Cinema and prose. The underground flashed in stories about the shops and "shadow workers," and the topic of "luck" was legally represented by lotteries (posters, films).
Player image. Either a "cheater" or a charming intruder is a person whose "life is a bet."
Control and punishment: how they caught and what they imputed
Militia raids. Operatives "covered" apartments on a tip from neighbors/competitors. Money, cards, "debt magazines" were withdrawn.
Articles. Most often - the organization of a brothel, speculation, parasitism, fraud. For the very fact of the game without aggravating circumstances, they were usually limited to prevention, but for "organization" and "overtaking" there could be a real term.
Career "under attack." Any "dark story" threatened with a party card and official consequences.
1960s-1980s: stable underground and lottery showcase
"Non-existent" mode. Underground card networks lived for years until conflicts got in the way and shone.
Legal facade. Lotteries, chess/checkers, sports sweepstakes in the form of quizzes without cash bets - the aesthetics of "moderate excitement."
Arcade machines. Entertainment shooting ranges and "Sea Battle" - without monetary returns. Attempts to make "one-armed bandits" in cooperatives of the late 1980s quickly fell into the gray zone.
Rebuilding: Cracks in Prohibition (second half of the 1980s)
Cooperatives and "first halls." Experimental opening of semi-legal playrooms and clubs at hotels and recreation centers.
Racecourses. Discussions about the return of sweepstakes in the form of "quizzes" and "cultural programs" are harbingers of the 1990s.
Frontier of eras. In recent years, the USSR and the first years of the post-USSR, a rapid transition to official casinos and slot halls has started - already outside the Soviet model.
What they played: the top 5 of the Soviet underground
1. Preference is an intellectual classic with the skill of counting and "hot" disputes.
2. "Point" (21) - quickly, simply, recklessly; favorite format of courtyards and dormitories.
3. Poker draw is less common, but popular with "sailors," "farts," people with foreign contacts.
4. Dominoes of interest are a legal and semi-legal habit of courtyards and parks.
5. Bones/thimbles - street "express excitement," actually fraudulent.
Why bans haven't killed the excitement
Human need. Risk, socialization, "quick emotion" - basic motives.
Ritual and environment. A card evening gave a social circle, a sense of "your" club.
Deficit economics. In a world of scarcity, money and things easily became bets - from coffee and jeans to currency.
Legal mask. Lotteries removed the severity of the ban by keeping some of the energy in a "safe channel."
Myths and facts
Myth: "There was no excitement in the USSR - everything is banned."
Fact: the underground flourished, and the state itself offered lotteries as a "safe" excitement.
Myth: "The sweepstakes have always worked."
Fact: legal rates were permissible only occasionally (in NEP), then a ban.
Myth: "Players are only criminals."
Fact: the contingent was mixed: from scientists to workshop workers; crime - about "organization and cashing."
Myth: "Poker is an import of the 1990s."
Fact: in the late USSR, poker draw was already played in circles "with the outside world"; The 1990s just brought him into the world.
Short chronology
1920s (NEP): brief legalization of the sweepstakes, then folding.
1930-1950s: rigid ideology; underground goes to apartments, lotteries - to the showcase.
1960s-1970s: stable underground + growth of goslotherei, "Sportloto."
1980s: cooperatives, the first "semi-legal" clubs, discussions about legalization.
1990s (already post-USSR): the rapid entry of gambling into the legal field is a new chapter.
Glossary
Katran is an underground premises for playing for money.
Preference is a card game on the account and contract, popular in the intellectual environment.
"Point" (21) - the ancestor of blackjack in a household format.
Tote - a system of bets on the outcome of races/competitions (in the USSR - brief legalization, then prohibition).
Sportloto is a state lottery, a symbol of the "legitimate hope" of the late USSR.
Takeaway: The ban system has spawned its shadow economy
The Soviet model simultaneously condemned excitement and channeled it through lotteries. Everything else lived in the shadows - from apartment preferences to street thimbles. The end of the 1980s cracked the forbidden dam: the underground was born, and a new era of the post-Soviet industry began. But the lesson of the USSR is simple: where the need is not recognized, it does not disappear - it changes shape.