[ English ]

The actual number of Kyrgyzstan casinos is something in some dispute. As details from this nation, out in the very most interior section of Central Asia, can be difficult to receive, this might not be too difficult to believe. Regardless if there are 2 or three approved gambling dens is the item at issue, perhaps not quite the most earth-shaking piece of info that we don’t have.

What will be credible, as it is of most of the ex-Soviet nations, and definitely correct of those in Asia, is that there will be many more not approved and underground gambling halls. The adjustment to authorized betting didn’t drive all the illegal locations to come out of the illegal into the legal. So, the controversy over the number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling dens is a minor one at most: how many approved gambling halls is the thing we’re seeking to reconcile here.

We know that in Bishkek, the capital metropolis, there is the Casino Las Vegas (a marvelously unique name, don’t you think?), which has both table games and slots. We will also see both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. Both of these offer 26 slots and 11 gaming tables, split amidst roulette, blackjack, and poker. Given the remarkable similarity in the sq.ft. and layout of these 2 Kyrgyzstan gambling dens, it might be even more surprising to see that they are at the same location. This seems most difficult to believe, so we can clearly state that the number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls, at least the legal ones, is limited to two casinos, one of them having changed their name recently.

The country, in common with the majority of the ex-USSR, has experienced something of a accelerated conversion to commercialism. The Wild East, you could say, to refer to the chaotic circumstances of the Wild West a century and a half ago.

Kyrgyzstan’s gambling dens are in reality worth going to, therefore, as a bit of anthropological analysis, to see dollars being wagered as a type of collective one-upmanship, the conspicuous consumption that Thorstein Veblen spoke about in nineteeth century America.