The only legal casino in Russia opened in the Azov City gambling zone

On the border of the Rostov region and the Krasnodar Territory, the country’s first gambling establishment opened on Saturday, opened after the law “On state regulation of activities for organizing and conducting gambling” came into force, according to which gambling establishments can operate only within specialized zones. The casino owners and local authorities promise to turn Azov City into a resort of world importance, which will be visited by 5 million tourists a year, but in the meantime, even girls for extras have to be brought to the lonely hangar standing in the steppe, from which the nearest airport is more than three hours away by bus.

A roadside billboard at the turn to the Azov City gambling zone depicts a large and beautiful city on the shore of a bay, in the middle of which there is an island connected to the shore by a long bridge. The authors had in mind that this is what the gambling zone will look like when it is completed. In the meantime, the first territory in Russia intended for gambling looks completely different: of all the facilities, only one has been built - the Oracle casino.

From the outside, this modular hangar looks like a large supermarket where you need to drive a car to buy food for the week. The establishment is surrounded by three neon palm trees standing in the middle of a vacant lot, marked as a park on the map of the future city. Between the vacant lot and the hangar there is a spacious parking lot for several hundred cars, but several hours before the casino opened, there were no free spaces left in this parking lot, and those who wanted to play had to park their cars on the road. Several taxi drivers from nearby Yeysk were also on duty here, but their role was rather decorative. As one of the drivers explained, the city administration called the taxi company and asked them to “stand by just in case.” Indeed, during the entire evening not a single taxi left the parking lot: either because all the guests had their own transport, or because the stated official tariff looked outlandish - 5 thousand rubles. to Krasnodar and the same to Rostov (three and a half hours in each direction).

The casino greeted guests with the smell of paint and the bustle typical of renovation rather than opening: in the middle of the gambling hall, workers were setting up scaffolding and dragging a gas cylinder onto it, half a dozen cleaners were trying to sweep away small shavings from the green carpet, security guards were rushing from one door to another, asking questions about each other. friend, where to let guests in and when to expect VIPs to arrive. Silent people with puzzled faces wandered around the slot machine hall. "Are these clients?" - a Kommersant correspondent addressed the head of the marketing department of the Kazan company Royal Time (it invested 340 million rubles in the project and intends to increase the amount of investment in Azov City to 4.5 billion rubles in the future) Valery Saparin. He shrugged: “These are guests, and clients will appear after 21.00, when the casino officially opens.”

In the foyer, security guards crowded the people, creating a corridor for honored guests: the first vice-governor of the Krasnodar region, Dzhambulat Khatuov, appeared at the casino together with the vice-governor Alexei Agafonov, who is in charge of the Azov-City project, they were accompanied by Rashid Taimasov, the general director of the Kazan investor company " Royal Time". The guests hid in a separate room for a long time, and the party in the gaming room began to gain momentum: the bar counter was filled with snacks, anxious people appeared at the card tables, decks of cards and chips flashed in the hands of the dealer. True, if one of the journalists tried to approach the roulette table or table to talk with the guests, the guards immediately blocked the road: “You can’t: this is a work zone.” “It’s mostly friends of the management of the investing company who play at the tables,” explained one of the officials. “This audience doesn’t want to be in the picture.”

Then there were speeches. Mr. Khatuov reproached the skeptics for not believing, firstly, that the region would build all the necessary infrastructure, and secondly, that business would participate in the project. “We see that, despite doubts, everything has come true: the first casino is operational, business believes in the project,” he said, adding that over time Azov City will turn into a world-class resort with a flow of up to 5 million tourists annually. In the meantime, as Rashid Taimasov said, the flow of guests to the casino will be 500 people per day. As for the payback period, he assured the audience that the first stage of the casino will pay for itself within a year. “For good luck,” announced Vice-Governor Alexey Agafonov, inviting VIP guests to place their first bets at roulette.

“It might be luck for someone, but I won’t come here again,” responded a drunk citizen behind the bar counter. “By the time you get there by car from Krasnodar, you won’t want to play.” The citizen pointed to the poker table: “Well, I decided to take up the old one, but apparently I’ll have to give up this business.” Deputy of the Krasnodar Legislative Assembly Vladimir Volchikhin, getting into the car, told a Kommersant correspondent: “I wouldn’t talk about success or failure, it’s a matter of political will. Gambling addiction is evil, but the gambling business needs to be put into a framework and made to benefit society ".

By ten o'clock in the evening there were almost no people left in the casino - the guests at the roulette tables were animatedly talking and drinking, not paying attention to the croupier, and in the hall with slot machines, anti-glamorous-looking men (no more than ten people) were gloomily squandering money, who had obviously arrived in " Azov City" to fight their own gambling addiction. But most of all I felt sorry for the “sexiest singer in the universe” Arthur Pirozhkov (Comedy Club resident Alexander Revva), who, standing on stage, tried to cheer up the rest. At approximately 11 p.m., a bus with a "Children" sign on the windshield parked at the entrance to the Oracle. Employees of a local modeling agency were brought from Krasnodar “straight from the show” (at least that’s what one of the girls told the correspondent). “We were told that it was not necessary to play, but we could have a free dinner,” the models explained. “We have to walk around the halls here until two o’clock and smile, and then the bus will go back.”

Oleg Kashin; Anna Perova, Krasnodar

The chip fell in the middle of the steppe