[ English ]

The confirmed number of Kyrgyzstan gambling halls is something in some dispute. As info from this country, out in the very remote central area of Central Asia, can be awkward to receive, this may not be all that surprising. Whether there are 2 or 3 accredited gambling dens is the thing at issue, perhaps not quite the most consequential slice of info that we don’t have.

What no doubt will be correct, as it is of the majority of the ex-USSR states, and definitely true of those located in Asia, is that there will be a great many more not allowed and bootleg market gambling dens. The switch to approved wagering did not empower all the underground places to come away from the dark and become legitimate. So, the debate regarding the total number of Kyrgyzstan’s casinos is a minor one at best: how many accredited ones is the item we’re attempting to reconcile here.

We understand that located in Bishkek, the capital city, there is the Casino Las Vegas (a spectacularly unique title, don’t you think?), which has both gaming tables and slot machines. We can additionally see both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. The two of these contain 26 video slots and 11 gaming tables, separated between roulette, twenty-one, and poker. Given the remarkable likeness in the size and floor plan of these 2 Kyrgyzstan gambling dens, it might be even more surprising to see that both are at the same location. This appears most unlikely, so we can no doubt conclude that the number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls, at least the legal ones, ends at 2 members, 1 of them having adjusted their name a short time ago.

The nation, in common with many of the ex-Soviet Union, has experienced something of a fast change to free-enterprise economy. The Wild East, you may say, to allude to the lawless circumstances of the Wild West an aeon and a half back.

Kyrgyzstan’s gambling dens are actually worth visiting, therefore, as a bit of social analysis, to see chips being bet as a form of social one-upmanship, the aristocratic consumption that Thorstein Veblen talked about in nineteeth century usa.