[ English ]

The conclusive number of Kyrgyzstan gambling halls is a fact in a little doubt. As data from this country, out in the very most interior section of Central Asia, often is difficult to acquire, this may not be too surprising. Regardless if there are 2 or three legal gambling dens is the item at issue, perhaps not quite the most earth-shattering article of information that we don’t have.

What will be correct, as it is of most of the old Russian nations, and certainly true of those in Asia, is that there will be a lot more not legal and clandestine gambling dens. The change to authorized gambling did not encourage all the aforestated casinos to come from the dark and become legitimate. So, the battle regarding the total number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling dens is a minor one at best: how many authorized ones is the element we are trying to answer here.

We understand that in Bishkek, the capital municipality, there is the Casino Las Vegas (a marvelously unique name, don’t you think?), which has both gaming tables and video slots. We will also see both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. The two of these offer 26 slot machines and 11 table games, divided amongst roulette, chemin de fer, and poker. Given the remarkable similarity in the sq.ft. and setup of these two Kyrgyzstan casinos, it might be even more astonishing to determine that the casinos share an location. This seems most difficult to believe, so we can clearly state that the list of Kyrgyzstan’s casinos, at least the legal ones, stops at two casinos, 1 of them having adjusted their name a short while ago.

The state, in common with most of the ex-Soviet Union, has experienced something of a accelerated change to free-enterprise economy. The Wild East, you might say, to allude to the anarchical conditions of the Wild West a century and a half ago.

Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls are actually worth checking out, therefore, as a piece of anthropological analysis, to see chips being wagered as a form of social one-upmanship, the conspicuous consumption that Thorstein Veblen wrote about in 19th century u.s.a..