Translated material
Five kilometers of excitement
In the future gambling zone "Yantarnaya" housing prices began to rise sharply
The Government of the Russian Federation has officially ordered the creation of the Yantarnaya gambling zone in the Kaliningrad region . This order was signed by Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov on January 21. This document defines the boundaries of the gambling zone in accordance with the cadastral plans of land plots located in the Kaliningrad region.Let us remind you that by July 1, 2009, all Russian gambling establishments must move to four specialized zones. At the end of December 2007, the Russian government ordered the creation of the Azov City gambling zone with an area of more than 20 square meters. km in the Krasnodar Territory and the Rostov Region.
The Kaliningrad territory of excitement is much smaller - almost 5 square meters. km. The place chosen was wild, sparsely populated - on the shore of the Baltic Sea in the Krasnotorovsky rural settlement of the Zelenograd region near the villages of Okunevo, Povarovka, Russkoe. The local population has never been involved in the gambling business. The opening of a fashionable resort near the villages is awaited there with interest - it is still a curiosity. Officials promise that taxes collected from roulettes and casinos will not go to the federal treasury, but will replenish local budgets. In the meantime, from the real, and not speculative, consequences of the creation of a gambling zone, only one thing is obvious - life has become more expensive. In the nearby village of Yantarny, the cost of housing (both new and on the secondary market) has increased significantly - almost three times.
As Regional Minister of Economy Felix Lapin said after signing the government order, it is now possible to begin developing architectural and technical documentation for land development. However, the region began to think about developing documentation long before the federal go-ahead.
Back in 2007, the regional government was negotiating with the American company IdeAttack. Its experts proposed dividing the local gambling territory into ten zones, including berths for cruise ships, aquariums, and SPA. The total investment was estimated at approximately $20 billion, but the regional government considered that these ideas required significant refinement.
The local press also wrote that they tried to interest one of the richest people on the planet, the American Sheldon Adelson, who made his business on passion, in the Kaliningrad gambling zone. His company, Las Vegas Sands Corp. owns two huge casino hotels and an expo center in Las Vegas, and in addition, actively invests money in the gambling business in Macau. However, it didn’t work out here either.
It was decided to put the development concept for the gambling zone up for auction. The regional authorities promised considerable money for this, almost 49 million rubles: whoever offers the best conditions for the preparation of documents will receive the order, which is so tasty by regional standards. Of this amount, only a little more than 20 million rubles. - money from the regional budget. The rest is due to the rights holders of the gambling zone lands. According to the terms of the contract, the development of the concept must be completed by October 2008.
The regional government has formulated a number of conditions that must be met. In particular, a company wishing to spend almost 49 million rubles must have experience in designing large gambling zones with an area of at least 300 hectares, and on the international market. Experience in developing concepts for casino resorts, luxury hotels, and theme parks in large gambling and resort entertainment areas such as Las Vegas, Macau, Dubai, and Monte Carlo is also desirable.
In addition, the concept should provide for the placement of modern casino resorts, hotels of leading hotel chains, shopping and entertainment facilities, swimming pools and water parks, SPA complexes, business centers, children's entertainment complexes, amusement parks, concert venues and even yachting.
Hotels with casinos should have at least ten (they have 50 gambling tables in each) plus 12 thousand gambling machines, and in hotels with and without casinos for those who want to try their luck and just vacationing guests, 27 thousand rooms are needed.
A preliminary version of the concept was planned to be presented in March 2008 at the MIPIM-2008 real estate exhibition in Cannes, France. 70 sq. m. were reserved in advance. meters of very valuable exhibition space in the Palais des Festivals. Equipment and materials for the presentation were planned to be delivered to Cannes before March 10. However, the deadline for summing up the results of the competition, initially set for December 15, 2007, was constantly shifted. As a result, the competition was canceled altogether. The official version is that the government is behind schedule.
It is generally not easy for a gambling zone to take root on Kaliningrad soil. The problem with developing its concept is not the only difficulty. At first, the Russian Orthodox Church spoke out against the placement of gambling territory in the westernmost region of the Russian Federation, calling through the mouth of Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad not to make money from sin. Then politicians joined the Orthodox - the leader of the local “A Just Russia”, Vladimir Nikitin, initiated the collection of signatures for a referendum, in which they could declare their disagreement with the plans of the regional authorities. At that time, Mr. Nikitin was a State Duma deputy, but after the December 2 elections he failed to retain his parliamentary mandate, and the referendum failed. Doctors specializing in mental health portrayed in the regional media the grim consequences that roulette and slot machines bring with them; people, in their opinion, risk becoming a victim of gambling addiction by squandering their hard-earned money. Local social activists organized themselves and sent their consolidated “no” to the gambling zone to the Kremlin (about 10 thousand people signed the appeal). However, none of them have yet achieved the desired effect.