An employee smokes in an empty gambling hall in Kiev May 18, 2009. At least 2,000 employees of Ukraine's profusion of casinos and gaming parlours protested on Monday against legislation banning their activity and urged the former Soviet republic's president not to sign it into law. Parliament slapped the blanket ban on gambling institutions last Friday, a week after fire destroyed a hall filled with slot machines, killing nine people. REUTERS/Konstantin Chernichkin (UKRAINE POLITICS CRIME LAW)