Magic Crystal set to debut in Yantarnaya gaming zone
Lawrence Ho’s Summit Ascent Russia is reported to have a majority of the directors on the board of Oriental Regent, owner of Tigre De Cristal in Russia’s Primorye economic zone, according to the World Casino Directory. A filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange indicates that Ho’s Summit Ascent Holdings will have four out of seven directors on the newly expanded board, compared with two of five members before.
Tigre De Cristal, the first of four casinos planned for the Primorye gaming zone near Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, opened in November. Since its opening, fully 50 percent of its casino visitors have come from Asia. The luxury resort’s $17 million Phase I featured 67 gaming tables and almost 500 gaming machines as well as a poker room. Phase II is set to break ground in late 2016 with a grand opening tentatively scheduled for late 2018.
Ho is chairman and CEO of Melco Entertainment, co-chairman and CEO of Melco Crown Entertainment, and son of Stanley Ho, Macau gaming legend. His Summit Ascent Holdings controls 60 percent of the Vladivostok casino. Taiwan-based Firich Enterprises controls 25 percent, and other investors include Oleg Drozdov’s City Wealth Group, Melco International Development Ltd. via New Crescent Investments Ltd., and Perfect Giant Investments Ltd., WCD reported.
Meanwhile, NewKaliningrad.ru reports that the first casino in the Yantarnaya gaming zone will open this week. The Magic Crystal will operate in Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania along the Baltic Coast. The two-story casino will debut with 150 slot machines; it will add 350 more machines before the end of the year, said Alexandr Dmitrochenko, CEO of Moscow-based Neverland, which owns the new property. The Yantarnaya gaming zone is one of five special gaming zones in Russia, which banned casinos in 2009.
