Blotter: First new legal casino opens in Russia

Azov City, Russia, has hopes of becoming Eastern Europe's Las Vegas after Russian officials legalized casino gambling in the area.

The new Oracle Casino, owned and operated by Russian-based Royal Time Company, received a special dispensation from the Moscow government to open their doors after gambling was declared illegal in the former Soviet Union. Last year, a European Poker Tournament event scheduled for Moscow was moved to Kiev, Ukraine, when the country's council for sports ruled that poker was not a sport.

Rashid Taimasov, president of Royal Time, said that the new casino would feature a resort area with a full-service hotel, water park, theater and other entertainment venues. The site currently houses two hundred slot machines and ten table games in a temporary facility. The company is expected to invest over US$150 million in the new facility; a large expenditure in Russia, but a comparative bargain next to the billion-plus invested in the new Aria resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

The vice-governor of the Krasnodar region, Aleksey Agafonov, said that investors are starting to notice that the property can be viable, drawing from the residents of the Krasnodar and Rostov regions as potential players. Gaming activity at the facility is expected to bring billions of dollars in taxes to regional and local governments over the next ten years. The development will be part of a new "gaming zone", one of four regions carved out by the Russian government. Outside of those designated areas, gambling is illegal in Russia and penalties are often swift and harsh.

One unfortunate occurrence after the casino's opening ceremonies was that a city councilman from Krasnodar was killed in an auto accident on his way back from Azov City. Nikolai Kotlyarov and his driver died when their car hit a parked car on a local highway and struck the guardrail. Mr. Kotlyarov was seventy-two years old and had been the speaker for the Krasnodar city legislature for four years.

03-Feb-2010, 21:56

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