First in a series of planned resorts
Lawrence Ho’s highly anticipated Tigre de Cristal resort has opened in Russia’s Primorye special economic zone near Vladivostok.
The resort marked its soft opening October 8 with a 119-room hotel and a casino with 800 machines, 15 baccarat tables, 25 other table games and 25 VIP gaming tables. It will eventually have two more hotels, a nightclub, restaurants and retail facilities; the casino is expected to add another 500 slots, 100 more VIP tables and 70 mass tables, for a total investment of US$1 billion. The larger economic development zone, when it’s totally built out, will include 15 hotels, 12 villas, a yacht club and a conference center.
According to the Moscow Times, the regional government expects the special district to bring in more than 1 billion rubles ($US16 million) in new taxes, as well as create new jobs and boost tourism and economic growth in the vicinity. In a filing, Ho’s Summit Ascent Holdings said the company is “optimistic about the prospects for our project in the Far East.”
In 2009, the Russian government outlawed gambling throughout the country except in six special zones. The Times reported that only two of the zones—Azov-City in the Krasnodar region and Siberian Coin in the Altai region—have “turned their special status into money-making entertainment complexes.” According to the website Yogonet.com, the launch of a gaming zone in Russia’s Kaliningrad region has been postponed until next summer. Citing a representative of investment company Royal Time Group, the newspaper Vedomosti reported that project has been stalled due to a changing exchange rate between the ruble and foreign currencies. Royal Time, which has announced plans to open the first stage of the project by the end of 2015, estimates its investment in the Kaliningrad gaming zone at about 45 billion rubles ($US730 million).
The Siberian Timesreports the Primorye zone hopes Asian tourists be the mainstay of its success. Former banker Craig Ballantyne, Tigre de Cristal’s chief operating officer, said the resort’s opening “will strengthen the investment positions of the region, and will transform Primorye into a world-class recreation area attracting visitors from all over the Pacific Far East. “In addition, Tigre de Cristal gave the work places to 1,200 employees, 95 percent of which are the locals. They are all young, professional and full of ambition.”
The Siberian Times added that the development is especially welcome, as low oil prices and Western sanctions send the Russian economy reeling. “The aim is to boost this key region, seven time zones east of Moscow, as the Kremlin pivots towards Asia,” the publication reported.
The casinos will take advantage of what Ballantyne recently called “the 120 million gambling-mad Chinese, Japanese and Koreans living within two hours’ flying time of this place.”
The Primorye zone is expected to be complete in 2022. Other investors include the Malaysian casino giant NagaCorp Ltd. Tigre de Cristal is owned by G1 Entertainment under parent company Melco International Development Ltd.
