Konstantin Shestakov, acting regional vice governor of Russia’s Primorsky Krai region, says there will be at least 11 casino resorts there by 2023.
The zone, on the Black Sea near Vladivostok, has been slow to grow; the sole operating casino, Summit Ascent Holdings’ Tigre de Cristal, opened in late 2015, in anticipation of a swiftly populated market with a cluster of casinos.
According to Asia Gaming Brief, currently a total of UB78.5 billion (US$1.2 billion) has been committed to the zone with seven companies from Hong Kong, China, the Kingdom of Cambodia, Russia and South Korea. By the end of next year, at least three of the new casinos will be up and running, Shestakov said.
“We have entered the final stage of constructing two new entertainment complexes with casinos in the gambling zone. An investor from Cambodia is completing an 11-story hotel with a casino and a concert hall, while a Russian investor, Shambhala CJSC, will launch its casino tentatively in March 2020. Workers are already finishing the building,” he said.
Igor Trofimov, head of the Primorsky Krai Development, said, “There has not been such [a level of] activity at the construction site for a long time, the territory is getting a new look. Contractors work simultaneously with investors. Highway construction is underway—we will put asphalt when it gets warmer, just in time for the completion of investor facilities. Sewer systems and drainage systems are also being built, electric networks are being laid.”
Trofimov said the corporation has fielded additional requests from foreign and Russian companies regarding the construction of casinos in the IRC Primorye.
“Two sites are currently free for the construction of a hotel complex with a casino, and there are companies that are showing interest. We are also negotiating the creation of entertainment facilities. An application has already been submitted for the construction of a golf course, we are establishing contacts with operators of large projects from the global entertainment industry,” he said.
Each year, Tigre de Cristal adds almost half a billion rubles to government coffers, more than half of which goes to the budget of Primorye. Since the opening, the complex has already been visited by 1.5 million people.
