KIEV, June 11 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's parliament has overridden President Viktor Yushchenko's veto of a bill temporarily banning gambling in the country.
With 300 votes required to overturn the veto, 390 deputies supported the anti-gambling law, which was first passed on May 15 a week after a fire in a casino in Dnepropetrovsk, to the southeast of Kiev, killed nine people and injured 11.
The provisional ban came into immediate effect.
Yushchenko, while saying that he supports the idea of a gambling ban, refused to sign the draft law and told the Supreme Rada to improve it.
The main reason the president vetoed the bill, which he called populist, was that about 200,000 people could lose jobs immediately, which he said would be intolerable during the economic crisis.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had previously vowed to ask parliament to override the presidential veto. "Ukraine should not destroy its life, spirituality and morals while being guided by such corrupt vetoes by the president," she said.
