[ English ]

The complete number of Kyrgyzstan gambling halls is something in a little doubt. As information from this nation, out in the very remote interior area of Central Asia, tends to be arduous to acquire, this might not be too surprising. Whether there are 2 or three authorized gambling dens is the thing at issue, perhaps not in fact the most all-important slice of data that we do not have.

What certainly is true, as it is of most of the ex-Russian nations, and absolutely accurate of those located in Asia, is that there certainly is a lot more not approved and bootleg market gambling dens. The adjustment to approved betting did not empower all the aforestated casinos to come out of the dark into the light. So, the bickering regarding the total number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls is a tiny one at best: how many legal ones is the thing we are seeking to answer here.

We know that in Bishkek, the capital municipality, there is the Casino Las Vegas (an amazingly unique name, don’t you think?), which has both gaming tables and video slots. We can additionally see both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. Both of these offer 26 video slots and 11 table games, separated amidst roulette, blackjack, and poker. Given the remarkable likeness in the sq.ft. and layout of these 2 Kyrgyzstan gambling halls, it may be even more bizarre to determine that the casinos are at the same address. This seems most astonishing, so we can no doubt state that the list of Kyrgyzstan’s casinos, at least the authorized ones, is limited to two members, one of them having altered their name a short time ago.

The country, in common with most of the ex-Soviet Union, has undergone something of a accelerated change to free market. The Wild East, you may say, to reference the lawless ways of the Wild West a century and a half back.

Kyrgyzstan’s casinos are in fact worth visiting, therefore, as a bit of anthropological research, to see dollars being played as a form of communal one-upmanship, the apparent consumption that Thorstein Veblen wrote about in nineteeth century u.s.a..