Russian Casino Tigre de Cristal To Open On October 8th

The Russian government has outlawed gambling outside of Sochi, Crimea, and four specially designated regions. Thus far, however, just Azov-City in southern Russia has opened up any casinos, although the Primorye region on the far south eastern corner of Russia should soon join it on October 8th. That is when a 119 bedroomed casino hotel, the Tigre de Cristal, is scheduled to open its doors and tempt nearby Asian gamblers in with its 65 gambling tables and 800 slot machines. Commenting on the development, Finam analyst Timur Nigmatullin, said:
“The Primorye gambling zone is the most promising project compared with other similar zones in Russia.. Considering the zone’s geographical location, we can assume that about 50 percent of all visitors will come from Asia, especially from China.”
The project is considered an important means in which to develop the mineral rich, but people poor far eastern region of the country, and the government has even offered a number of incentives to attract investment, including fast-tracked investment approval, visa exemptions, and preferential tax rates.
Lawrence Ho, owner of Melco International Ltd, may be the first operator to open up a casino in the area, but a number of other firms are also set to follow suite, including Diamond Fortune, and the Royal Time Group. Eventually, the Russian government is hoping that the 620 hectares gambling zone will host 16 hotel-casino resorts, as well as a range of other features, including a yacht club and wharf, ski slopes, and an exhibition center. Commenting on the region’s future going forward, Tigre de Cristal CEO Craig Ballantyne told the Financial Times:
“We have more than 300m people living in a three-hour flight radius around here. We expect Russians to account for 80 per cent of our business in terms of bodies, but Chinese to make up 80 per cent of the business in money terms.”