Despite the unstable political, geopolitical, and economic situation in Russia, it seems their gambling market is blooming this year. In the Russian Far East, in the popular Primorye entertainment zone, many new gamblers joined the community and became guests of the famous casinos. 

Good year for the Primorye:

Local authorities claim that only last year the number of visitors was bigger than 463,000. It is a huge increase compared to the previous year when that number was 19.2 percent smaller. The average number of visitors monthly was about 38,600, and in October, that record was broken – 44,454 visitors were guests of the casinos.

These figures were announced by the Development Corporation of Primorsky Region JSC and are shared on their website.

Most of the visitors to the Primorye were residents of Russia. However, about 13 percent of the total number of visitors were foreigners, in most cases tourists from China (14.726) and South Korea (9.512).

The location of the Primorye gambling zone is pretty good – the casino development area is only 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from Vladivostok, an important port on the Pacific, so this is one of the huge benefits of the area, which surely increased its popularity among the gamblers and gamers. 

Two casinos and one world crisis:

Two casinos are currently operating in the area. Summit Ascent Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of LET Group Holdings Ltd from Hong Kong, is the owner of Tigre de Cristal Casino, the first casino in the area. The second property is the Shambala casino resort, which is owned by Shambala CJSC.

The profit earned from Tigre de Cristal this year is higher than the one earned in 2022: there was a significant increase of 37.3 percent, and the revenue was HKD430.9 million, or US$43.4 million, as the Summit Ascent announced. 

However, the war between Russia and Ukraine has impacted the company and continues to challenge the industry as it progresses, as Summit Ascent’s officials state. They said: “The sanctions and the travel alerts to the Russian Federation are still in place… while international flights of our key international destinations have not yet been resumed.”

NagaCorp Ltd, a company from Hong Kong, suspended its operations in the area in March 2022. The company was operating a gaming resort there. However, they mentioned some “uncertainties” related to the project and decided to stop operating. At the moment, any mention of the war, sanctions, or any kind of crisis hasn’t been mentioned, but investment analysts suggested that it is the reason behind NagaCorp’s withdrawal from the area.