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Olympic Entertainment Group (Estonia), which owns casinos in eight countries, including Ukraine, considers the parliament's decision to ban operation of gambling business in population centers illegal.

The company announced this in a statement.

"This law violates several other legislative acts, and we are hoping that President [Viktor Yushchenko] will not approve it," the company said.

The company stressed that the casinos it operates meet all the legislative requirements on safety and attributed the parliament's decision to political reasons.

The company also said it considered illegal and disproportional the Finance Ministry's decision to suspend the licenses of all gambling establishments because of a fire in a gambling establishment belonging to only one of the companies operating on the market.

Olympic Entertainment Group said that the entire network of Olympic casinos in Ukraine has been closed down and its employees sent on unpaid leave.

Olympic Entertainment Group began operations in Estonia in 1993 and presently operates Olympic Casino chains in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

The company began operation in Ukraine in 2004 and presently owns a chain of 24 Olympic Casinos in Kyiv.

Revenues of the group's Ukrainian casinos account for 12% of its consolidated operating revenues.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the parliament banned operation of gambling businesses in population centers on May 15.

Yushchenko has said that he may sign the relevant law after consultations with experts.

The law will come into effect on the day of its publication and before adoption of special legislation providing for conduct of gambling operations in zones specially created for them.

Nine people died and 11 were hospitalized in the early hours of May 7 as a result of a fire in the Metro Jackpot company's slot-machine hall located at 127, Gagarin Street, in Dnipropetrovsk.