Tigre de Cristal first in a “cluster”
Russian gaming company CJSC Shambala has joined the group of investors building a casino entertainment zone in Russia’s Primorye region near the Black Sea port of Vladivostok. The resort will join Summit Ascent Holdings’ Tigre de Cristal, so far the only operating casino resort in the zone, and several other casinos now in development.
“Primorye has high potential to become the entertaining resort of the international class. Therefore we are interested in becoming its residents. We want to offer the most large-scale and ambitious project from what was done earlier,” said CJSC Shambala President Maxim Smolentsev.
The proposed resort will include a five-star hotel, food and beverage outlets, a day spa and a nightclub. Phase I of the project, which represents an investment of about $34.5 million, is expected to be complete by this time in 2019, reported CalvinAyre.com. Phase II will last an additional three years for an investment of $138 million.
In July, the Primorsky Krai Development Corp. identified three parcels that would be set aside for casino development. With the developments now in the pipeline, officials are hoping for a cluster of entertainment options that will draw tourists from Mainland China and elsewhere.
In a 2017 Annual Report, Summit Ascent Holdings, the company run by Lawrence Ho said, “We expect that ongoing efforts of the Russian government to promote the Russian Far East as a tourism destination will accelerate the already explosive growth of foreign tourism and provides us optimism that there is additional room to further ramp up our business.”
The company recently announced a 20 percent increase in revenue for the first six months of 2017 to HK$204.6 million (US$26.2 million), due mostly to growth of 140 percent in VIP rolling chip turnover at Tigre de Cristal.
CJSC Shambala currently operates the Shambala casino in the Azov-City gaming zone in Krasnodar Krai. However, all casinos that are still operating in that area are scheduled to close by January 1, 2019 in a move designed to boost the Sochi gaming region.
