Russian python in Minsk

The gambling business crawled into fraternal Belarus. It seems that she will not feed him

The lawyer of the "changriles" of Sergey impressed the order and serenity reigning in Belarus. Of course, like any normal Moscow manager, Sergey saw a lot. And even corals on the coast of Egypt. And what I did not see - I watched on TV. But...

The lawyer of the "changriles" of Sergey impressed the order and serenity reigning in Belarus. Of course, like any normal Moscow manager, Sergey saw a lot. And even corals on the coast of Egypt. And what I did not see - I watched on TV. But this ... "They speak Russian, they don’t take bribes ... This simply did not fit in my head!" - Sergey admitted to me.

Over and over again, he came to Minsk, preparing the crossing of the Moscow Casino "Shagril" to the hospitable Belarusian land.

And every time he was amazed at the orders that reigned here. “Well, Lukashenko reigns,” Sergey said further. - Well, there is no democracy, freedom of speech there, opinions, meetings ... But the “pistach of the Kena” travel according to the rules. Yes, there is "Porsh Kena"! "

But on Russian television, Sergei saw a completely different one. Belarus was a poor extortion totalitarian regime for him. However, Sergey saw neither totalitarianism nor extortion here. Vice versa. "We were accepted with open arms!" - This is about moving the "changryls."

... The summer of the fracture of 2009 was going on. The gambling business left Russia*, gaining a new house (and employees) in Minsk. And Sergey, having fulfilled his mission, had to go back, home, to Lyubertsy. But then he met her.

One of the oldest Casino Minsk is Dankoff-Club. Evening.

- Kostya is still a teenager, but already a universal favorite. And eats like a horse. Hey, Kostya? - Gennady Gennady bowed over the aquarium, where, curled up in a heap, Python lay. In a neighboring aquarium - with water - excitedly from the corner to the corner swam the turtle. “I see that I was hungry, artist!” Be patient!
“Turtles,” I say, “you have quick ones.”

- So they have a season. March. Players would have such an activity, ”said Gennady.

- What, not the season? - I ask.

“That's right,” Gennady nodded. - hibernation. Like Python.

The owner of the four -story entertainment club Yuri Petrovich Dankov was in a black turtleneck, black tuxedo. With two black phones. They called every now and then. At some point, he answered two calls at once: “Forty-seven thousand rubles! Do you understand? Yes, not you, but you! .. Yes, not ours, but Russian rubles! "
“I need to urgently send money to Moscow, but I can’t find a reliable courier,” Dankov later explained. - Right at least go yourself.

- Why don't you send through Western Union? I asked.

-So that all of Minsk knew that Dankov in Moscow owes someone forty-seven thousand? - Dankov was indignant.

But before, businessman Dankov did not think about such trifles. Even in the casino appeared occasionally. He used to look high and high. So much so that it even advanced to the president of the republic (2001). They say that by current standards, the merchant was then lucky - only a criminal case was opened against him on the fact of falsification of signatures and removed from the elections.

But already in the summer of 2009, Dankov, like many of his colleagues, again looked high. The prospects of Las Vegas on the CIS scale were opened before Minsk. The calculation was that customers of casino closed in Russia would reach for the city. This is easy, the main thing is that there would be a client. Yuri Petrovich then almost remade the whole club under the casino (restaurant, strip bar, dance floor, travel agency, male cosmetology). What would lead him to a leading position.

However, the owners of the businesses prohibited in Russia stretched to Minsk.

- None of the locals at first was particularly against the arrival of the Russians. We were waiting for a flurry of foreign players, which is enough for everyone. And we are not greedy! - Dankov told me.

Of the 26 gambling houses of Minsk, about a third now belong to foreigners. Russian companies own, for example, six casinos. “Millennium”, “Colosseum” - behind these establishments, as they say in Minsk, are Moscow merchants of the middle hand. At the same time, Global is a casino with the interests of the Armenian diaspora. And “royal” and “Victoria” are called the estate of “St. Petersburg”.

According to rumors, Russian entrepreneur Vladimir Bryntsalov threw the idea of ​​the “second Las Vegas” a couple of years ago (and a little later, according to some reports, he became a co-owner of several casinos). Alexander Grigoryevich then reacted to such a way of attracting investments without enthusiasm. However, when the crisis struck, it was not up to whims - money needed.

This was a sign of the pre -crisis era: without the approval of the first person to foreign capital to Belarus, not to get. The authorities dictated the rules for foreigners and itself could arbitrarily change them. But today the power makes concessions. And investors are already capricious. They need personal guarantees of the first persons ... And for the past two years, Alexander Grigoryevich has been personally present at the opening of the casino. That Belarusian spectators could observe in the news.

The loyalty of the authorities to investors reached a peak in the fall of 2009, when it was decided to build a gambling zone near Minsk. The conditions were fantastic. For example, those who wish to participate in the project were supposed to be exempted for a long time from taxes. Officials personally searched for investors in Russia and all the first half of 2009 called the owners of large casinos. Simultaneously with travel agencies, negotiations were conducted on the promotion of Junky-Turov (2-3 days of trips with a free flight and living in the Russian masses, but with a mandatory deposit in the casino-on average $ 3 thousand). In short, Belarusians took up the matter seriously. Minsk expected the invasion of players.

_E recommended Sergey as one of the best international lawyers of the republic. However, this should have been an ordinary business meeting. From such meetings, a confident careerist Sergey is not used to waiting for something special. Like the women's lawyers ... But this time something happened ... When their views (his and lawyer faith) intersected, Sergey, not noticing it himself, reached out for a cigarette nervously. When the lawyer Vera accidentally touched his hand, Sergey shuddered like a unfinished bream ... However, a business meeting could not end differently - they still parted for “you”, exchanging, as expected, with these stupid business cards. And only in the "Odnoklassniki", discarding corporate armor, we talked, getting to know love. They put, for example, to each other "five" in the photo. And spun ... _

"You are great!" - Sergey admitted to Vera on the website of this social network. “This is me in Turkey,” there was an answer with an embarrassed emoticon ...

Already at the meeting, Sergei suggested Vera to move to Moscow (Lyubertsy), where money and a quick career. Surprisingly, Vera replied: “There is dirt and vanity. No, you are better to me! - And she added: - We will rent an apartment. " Could Sergei in love refuse?

The invasion happened shortly after July 1. They say there were thousands of them. Dankov says that he generally thought to close the casino for a month. For several weeks, they devastated the cash desks of the largest casino of Minsk. So far, finally, the security of the establishments has not stopped letting them to the tables. These were counters **. Professional players who do not complain about. The Moscow casino put these on black lists and simply did not let them go to the table (therefore, the counters toured the regional centers). In Minsk, by inexperience they were accepted with hospitality.

“Humanly offensive,” Dankov recalls. - All casinos were preparing so much, they had a lot of raised bets specifically under Muscovites, and then these came up. The first days we thought: well, lucky. And when they understood - everything, there is no money ...

The only place where the counters could not reach was the "changryl". Although ordinary players did not get there. From the very first day, the management of the institution set the “entrance” in $ 5 thousand - transcendental, I must say, not only for Minsk, but also for Moscow (the average entrance in 2008-2009 - $ 70). “Our clients are people of such a size that I will not even call them. You can’t, ”the representative of the owner Lavrenty Gubin told me. Although, however, it is known that Alla Pugacheva was a permanent guest. And today, her friend Maxim Galkin is going to the Minsk casino to give a concert. Among other things, Shagril shakes small aircraft for VIP flight. And does not experience deficit in customers. But in this regard, I must say, the example of the "changryls" is unique. The rest have to count on the local population.

There was no janket-Turov in Minsk. Moreover, on the gambling market growing in his expectation, it became crowded. Twenty -six houses - for only the inhabitants of Minsk, this, you see, is too much.

- There is no one just to play! - said Dankov. - Our local players are not at all like yours. These are small entrepreneurs, people with an average income, and 3 thousand dollars per evening for them a ceiling!

- Why didn't the client go from Russia? I asked him.

- And you think! - Dankov's indignant. - I was here in Moscow with my friends, and they told me: would you want to play the Roulette? And they give the address in some village on the Mozhayskoye Shosse. And the slot clubs, which suddenly became with you Internet clubs, then stimulating lottery! Here, here, in Belarus, we hoped that at least this law in Russia would be fulfilled. Tell me, naive people live in our republic?!

The famous Minsk economist Leonid Zaiko says that interest in gambling in power has dried up.

“Lukashenko counted on giant external investments that will push the economy,” Zaiko told me. - The president, of course, has utopian hopes. MAZ works at the warehouse, in the dairy farm, overproduction, the pride of the Republic of Belarus Tractor is not saved. And no casino will help here. Thank God, Alexander Grigoryevich began to understand this.

I must say, for several months in the republic an unofficial ban on the issuance of licenses has been operating. Rumor has it, which cooled to the industry Lukashenko is allegedly going to give it under patronage to his 30-year-old son Dmitry. It is known about him quite a bit. Here, for example, we know for sure: from childhood, Dima was fond of sports, therefore, having graduated from the faculty of international relations of BSU, he defended his diploma on “The performance of Belarusian athletes in the international arena”. The only Porsche sports foreign cars in the republic are also associated with his name (according to the calculations of the Minsk journalists, about 20 cars managed to sell in the crisis year).

Speaking of Porsche. In Minsk, many told me about this: walking in a casino is like traveling around the city on an expensive foreign car. That is, not one reasonable Belarusian businessman (“bignyak”) will allow himself either one or the other. Because the fact of traveling in Minsk to Porsche has the same consequences for a businessman as in Russia a sponsorship fee to the opposition ticket office. That is, you can stay without business - and all the consequences.

Therefore, the Porsche salon (like the car itself) is only for their own, not even business, but rather entertainment. And if rumors are confirmed, they will soon come to the casino. This is, say, the children and wives of officials from the president's entourage. And it is unlikely that a local businessman will stick there.

“Rich Belarusians are modest, absolutely loyal people,” Zaiko told me. - They well understand that it is better not to advertise their accumulated funds.

This story has a happy ending. No one won, but did not lose. Only Sergey transferred to Minsk and copies with faith to the apartment. And it doesn’t matter that in Moscow he flaunted at the Hugo Boss for 35 thousand, and here - in the costume of the Comintern factory for five five hundred. In Minsk, everything is cheap, and even labor. But the main thing is not this. Sergey is good. There should be no disappointment in romantic stories.

When I said goodbye to Dankov, the Gennady Metorr will talk again with the reptiles. There was a small cage in his legs. Running his hand there, Gennady took out a living rodent with long legs.

- Tushkanchik! - Comments the Metordotel. - Give one per day, and these are two hundred in a pet store!

“Wait,” I say, “do you feed the snake with a pet store with a pet store?”

“Both rats and hamsters, but less often,” Gene remarks the secular. - Once they brought a guinea pig - Kostya, of course, was delighted!

- You are crazy.

- So I say! Why tushkans? Let's transfer it to cheap hamsters. But so he doesn’t eat them! I'm used to living sweet, artist!

* True, as it turned out, he didn’t leave (see “Russians do not lose in the roulette. The largest reservation for gambling was discovered in Moscow. Casinos and“ one -armed bandits ”salons did not lose any profit or clientele. Yes, the owners are the same”, “New” No. 35 dated 04/05/2010).

** Counters are experienced players leading the account account (or determining the likelihood of winning in roulette). The counter is determined by the “good game” - they always beat the casino. Do it for the sake of earnings, not entertainment. From a legal point of view, it is absolutely clean.