[ English ]

The conclusive number of Kyrgyzstan casinos is something in some dispute. As data from this state, out in the very remote interior area of Central Asia, can be awkward to achieve, this may not be all that astonishing. Whether there are 2 or 3 accredited gambling dens is the element at issue, maybe not really the most all-important piece of information that we don’t have.

What will be correct, as it is of most of the ex-Russian states, and definitely accurate of those located in Asia, is that there certainly is a good many more not approved and clandestine gambling dens. The change to authorized betting didn’t encourage all the illegal gambling halls to come from the dark and become legitimate. So, the bickering regarding the total number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls is a minor one at most: how many accredited gambling halls is the thing we are seeking to answer here.

We understand that in Bishkek, the capital city, there is the Casino Las Vegas (a spectacularly original name, don’t you think?), which has both gaming tables and slots. We can also see both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. Each of these contain 26 slot machines and 11 table games, split between roulette, 21, and poker. Given the remarkable likeness in the size and layout of these 2 Kyrgyzstan gambling dens, it might be even more surprising to determine that the casinos are at the same location. This appears most confounding, so we can likely conclude that the number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling dens, at least the authorized ones, ends at 2 casinos, one of them having adjusted their name recently.

The state, in common with many of the ex-USSR, has experienced something of a accelerated adjustment to capitalism. The Wild East, you may say, to allude to the chaotic ways of the Wild West a century and a half back.

Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls are in reality worth visiting, therefore, as a piece of social analysis, to see dollars being gambled as a form of communal one-upmanship, the conspicuous consumption that Thorstein Veblen talked about in nineteeth century America.