[ English ]

The confirmed number of Kyrgyzstan gambling dens is something in a little doubt. As data from this country, out in the very remote central part of Central Asia, often is difficult to receive, this might not be all that surprising. Regardless if there are two or 3 legal gambling halls is the element at issue, maybe not really the most consequential bit of information that we don’t have.

What certainly is true, as it is of the majority of the ex-Russian states, and definitely true of those in Asia, is that there no doubt will be many more not approved and clandestine gambling dens. The adjustment to authorized betting didn’t empower all the aforestated gambling dens to come out of the dark and become legitimate. So, the controversy regarding the total amount of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls is a minor one at best: how many approved ones is the thing we’re trying to answer here.

We understand that in Bishkek, the capital metropolis, there is the Casino Las Vegas (an amazingly unique title, don’t you think?), which has both table games and slot machine games. We will also find both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. Each of these have 26 one armed bandits and 11 table games, split amongst roulette, 21, and poker. Given the amazing likeness in the sq.ft. and layout of these two Kyrgyzstan casinos, it might be even more astonishing to find that the casinos share an address. This seems most unlikely, so we can perhaps determine that the list of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls, at least the legal ones, ends at 2 casinos, one of them having changed their title recently.

The nation, in common with practically all of the ex-USSR, has experienced something of a fast change to commercialism. The Wild East, you might say, to refer to the chaotic conditions of the Wild West an aeon and a half back.

Kyrgyzstan’s casinos are certainly worth checking out, therefore, as a bit of social analysis, to see chips being played as a type of social one-upmanship, the conspicuous consumption that Thorstein Veblen wrote about in 19th century usa.