Russians Take to Gambling as the Largest Casino Opens
Eastern Russia has recently opened a 50 Table game casino, and 500 slot machines, this is the largest casino up to date and it is hoped that it will be part of a “Las Vegas on the Pacific”.
The casino is the first one in the gambling zone of Tigre de Cristal, near the Pacific port city of Vladivostok. The building of this casino is just six years after the country implemented a very anti-gambling position. Things are beginning to change, currently there are casinos that are limited to just four regions in the country.
In a recent Amaya Gaming quarterly earnings report, there is also lobbying in Russia for online gambling, and it is expected that Russia will to take positive steps toward the industry over the next year.
David Baazov, the CEO of Amaya, said that within the EU, the trend is towards in-country regulation and continues at a steady pace. Outside the EU, they were actively promoting regulation, and are now seeing progress in some of their larger markets outside the EU, in particular Russia.
Mr Baazov continued that in terms of Russia, it’s been a dialogue that has been ongoing for quite while and he thinks that the Russians see poker as a mind sport, et cetera. And there is expectation that they will regulate and issue licenses, with regards to Russia, in 2016.
The estimate that online poker could bring 5 billion rubles ($146 million) per annum for the government. Poker has been officially considered a sport in Russia during 2007, which protected its standing, however, the Sports Ministry removed it from the national sports registry during June 2009, and re-labeled it as a form of gambling.
