Beachfront locale a plus
Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp will break ground on its first Russian casino resort, Naga Vladivostok, in November. The property will be built in the country’s Primorye casino zone near the Black Sea. The project was formerly called Naga Entertainment City.
The first phase of the project, representing an investment of $70 million, will feature a casino, hotel and conference hall. The total investment will be approximately $350 million, reported the Asia Gaming Brief.
According to Andrei Folomeev, head of the Primorye Territory Development Corp., NagaCorp will finish laying the groundwork in March 2018 and “does not expect any delays.”
Konstantin Shestakov, head of the local tourism department, said Naga Vladivostok will feature the first non-gaming entertainment facilities in the zone, including an outdoor pool and a concert hall.
“It will be the only facility located on the beach, and this will also help develop beach recreation, yacht trips, parties and many other things,” he said.
For sheer size, Naga Vladivostok’s hotel will surpass that of Summit Ascent Holdings’ Tigre de Cristal, which opened in the Primorye zone in October 2015 and is still the only casino resort operating in the region. The total area of the new hotel will be almost 55,000 square meters (592,000 square feet) versus Tigre de Cristal’s 36,000 square meters.
Also in Russia, a planned Crimea gaming zone in the country’s Krasnodar Krai region will soon start accepting bids for gaming operators who want to develop hotels and tourist attractions there. The planned Crimea gaming zone is part of Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region. According to Macau Business, the appetite for Russia’s gaming market has been “reportedly low,” with Macau gaming magnate Lawrence Ho recently cutting his stake in Tigre de Cristal from 27.06 percent to 18.75 percent.
The publication cited “instability in the region and an unpredictable Russian government” as factors that have turned off global giants like MGM Resorts International, Wynn Resorts and the Las Vegas Sands Corp.
Russian President Vladimir Putin approved four gaming zones in 2014, after banning casinos and other gaming halls throughout the country in 2009. Casino development in the Kaliningrad Oblast and Altai Krai “is nearly non-existent,” reported Macau Business.
Meanwhile, according to CalvinAyre.com, Russian news outlet Betting Business Russia printed excerpts from a letter written to Putin by Maxim Smolentsev, director of CJSC Shambala, which operates the Shambala casino in the Azov City gaming zone. Putin has ordered the three casinos in Azov City to shut down by January 2019. That would make way for a new gaming zone in the nearby Sochi region.
Smolentsev informed Putin that closing the casinos will put 2,000 people out of work and deprive the local government of US $6.9 million in tax revenue. Smolentsev asked “dear Vladimir Vladimirovich” to avert “a social explosion in the Krasnodar Territory.”
His company recently announced plans to build a new casino in the Primorye gaming zone as well; it isn’t expected to open until late 2019 at the earliest.
