Russia’s Primorye gambling zone has already recouped government investment: Tourism Director

The Director of Primorsky Territory’s Tourism Department says taxes collected from the state’s two existing casinos, Tigre de Cristal and Shambala, have already covered the government’s investment in surrounding infrastructure.

Konstantin Shestakov said this week that Primorsky had so far allocated around RUB1.93 billion (US$25.5 million) for the construction of infrastructure in the Primorye gambling zone but more than RUB2 billion (US$26.5 million) will have been collected from the operators by the end of this year.

Tigre de Cristal, majority owned by Hong Kong-listed Summit Ascent Holdings – a subsidiary of Suncity Group Holdings – was the first casino project to open in Primorye in October 2015 with locally-owned Shambala becoming the second in late 2020.

“Based on the results of the project development in 2020, the most significant event was the commissioning of the second facility on the territory of the gambling zone – the Shambala complex,” Shestakov said.

“Thanks to this, the total number of people employed within the framework of the gambling zone project was almost 1,500, not counting the jobs created in related industries.

“For the entire period since the beginning of the implementation of the project Primorye, the amount of tax and other deductions will be more than RUB2 billion rubles by the end of 2021, of which more than RUB1.6 billion goes directly to the budget of Primorye.”

Works are now ongoing to provide more infrastructure in and around two more casinos scheduled to open in the next 12 months: Russian-owned Diamond Fortune and a project by NagaCorp. Construction is currently underway on a section of highway leading directly to Diamond Fortune while water treatment facilities, sewerage pumping stations have been built and power lines have now been built.