The wrong side of good luck

Almost three thousand people are now working in the gambling zone of the Azov City. Since December 31, 2018, the casino should be liquidated - this is how the government decided. What will the locals do - casino employees when they will close it?

This road does not promise anything funny. At some point, the landscape becomes so dull and monotonous that you begin to doubt whether you are going true. No one calls you at every step to experience good luck and get a sea of ​​pleasures from life. Although the gambling zone in the Shcherbinovsky district was conceived as the Kuban Las Vegas. On the shores of the Taganrog Bay, the city of world -class entertainment was supposed to grow and revive the dying villages in this part of the Krasnodar Territory, to set the development vector of the entire Azov coast.

The highway stretches through the fields, past rare villages and gas stations. On the border with the Yeisk district, you meet the first pointer-at Azov City. Such an ordinary, blue-white road sign. After it, the dull landscape is diluted with abandoned livestock farms - the remains of the former greatness of the Shcherbinovsky district. At some point, a dusty skyscraper appears on the horizon. Just a gray cube in the fields. You go and guess - what is it? The famous gambling zone? It is impossible to imagine that in 2017 it was visited by almost 470 thousand people. And that every Thursday and Friday on the outskirts of Azov City form huge traffic jams-the number of people who want to experience good luck are formed. So the first impression is deceptive.

But from December 31, 2018, the Azov City gambling zone should be eliminated. Such an order was signed by the head of the government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev. The solution is dictated by applicable law: in one region there can be only one gambling zone. And in the Krasnodar Territory there are two of them now. One in front of us-in the Shcherbinovsky district on the border with the Rostov region-"Azov-City". The second in Krasnaya Polyana is “Sochi Casino”.

Many are perplexed why to liquidate a successful project, which brings billion profit in the form of taxes, providing workplaces of almost 3 thousand people. So we came to find out what the locals will do when they close it.

Lemonia country

There is an amazing climate. The Sea of ​​Azov is always cooling faster than black, from September, winds begin to blow on the coast, rains are going on, flooding regularly occur. But on the shore of the Taganrog Bay, where the gambling zone is located, warm and comfortable. Cold winds do not reach here.

Five -hundred meters from the casino is the Leminsky farm. Rather, what remains of him. 20 courtyards in which pensioners live. From the infrastructure in the farm there is one grocery store, two hotels and an abandoned children's camp. No pharmacies, no paramedic point, no police station. But the people living here called their farm with a country with Lemonia.

At the entrance to the gambling zone photo: Alina Pratnikhenko for TD

In the 60s of the last century, Molchanovka flourished. One hundred yards, their own milk farm, pig farm, fish agency, gardens, canning plants. In the 80s, Ukrainian miners built a children's camp "Ugolek" in Molchanovka on the shores of the Taganrog Gulf. And many residents of the farm worked there. They lived happily until the authorities took up enlargement. The administrative center was transferred to the neighboring village of Shabelskoye, they also began to forcibly resettle Khutorian. Life in Molchanovka began to gradually fade away.

In the 90s, after the collapse of the USSR, the Camp camp was renamed the “surf”. And he became the municipal property of the Shcherbinovsky district. Each summer, orphanages from Moscow came to the camp until 2008. Three shifts of 300 people. Only then did the revival came in Molchanovka.

Casino "oracle" photo: Alina Pratnikhenko for TD

Former boarding house "Surf" photo: Alina Tratnikhenko for TD

After the opening of the gambling zone, children stopped bringing to Molchanovka. Children and gambling are incompatible. The camp was simply abandoned. Furniture and equipment were pulled out, the houses became unusable, the territory turned into a landfill.

The senior officer of the Kuban Cossack army living near the “surf” Grigory Grigoryevich says that the children's camp today has become a refuge for the gamers lost in the fluff.

“There are some scourges and drug addicts,” the Cossack grins.

Other residents of Molchanovka say that there is no one in the camp. It’s just that sometimes people lose everything, and they spend the night in an abandoned camp. But the Cossack is in relation to the gambling zone categorically negatively. Waiting will not wait for it to close. He says that the surroundings are cluttered with the used “bulbules” - as the slang is called the device for the use of prohibited smoking mixtures. True, we did not see bulbulators, but we are not an indicator. We do not know how they look.

We found Grigory Grigoryevich for exercises with a saber. The hereditary Cossack honed combat skills. He is from Ukraine. The wife works in a casino.

- The wife has two higher education, and works there. And so many with us. There is no more work. Some are a janitor, some in the dining room, some maid. They pay salaries on time. But I will not say that very good. Here are the cooks and the croupier - so, there are more than 30 thousand and 90, ”the senior officer is sure. In his opinion, the Lemor Sallovka did not benefit anything from the appearance of Azov-City. The only road is destroyed, there is no small business, everywhere garbage.

The construction of the gambling zone of the farmers was initially perceived with great enthusiasm. The island in the middle of the Taganrog Bay, yacht Marina, hotels, casino, water park, concert halls - and all this splendor in their Molchanovka! Yes, the farmers could not even dream of this. After all, they worked all their lives on farms, some in the field, some at the tin plant.

Of the promised, only the fact that three casinos and several hotels were built came true.

At the entrance to the gambling zone photo: Alina Pratnikhenko for TD

The development of the gambling zone "Azov City" began in 2008. At first, two regions were to be built - the Krasnodar Territory and the Rostov Region. Under the Azov City, several hundred hectares of first-class agricultural lands were seized from the turnover. Now they are overgrown with weeds. Pounds of engineering communications were laid. Water supply, gas pipeline, high -voltage power line, storm sewers.

- There the storm only built for a whole year. The pipes were laid to a depth of 8 meters, they will be enough to provide an entire city. Our water is bad, so the water supply was extended from the Leningrad district (Krasnodar Territory). A high -voltage power line was pulled from Volgodonsk. Huge supports were put. It remains only to pull the wires, put the substation and let the current, ”says a resident of Molchanovka, pensioner Sergei Ivanovich.

He says that from the side of the Rostov region, a road 9 km long was laid through the fields to the casino. A little more, and they would reach the Kuban part of the Azov City.

But in 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law that excluded the Rostov region from the list of regions, where gambling zones may be located. The initiative was supported in the State Duma, seeing the “tremendous infrastructure lag” of the Rostov part “Azov City”. By that time, two casinos were already working from the Krasnodar Territory, and from the side of the Rostov region supposedly "the horse did not lie." True, the inhabitants of Molchanovka assure that Rostov investors still put one tent under the casino. And that today he is lonely whitening in a clean field, not necessary for anyone.
The Krasnodar part of Azov City was officially launched on July 1, 2009. The first bets were made by the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachev. The farmers recall how, by the arrival of the governor, they created the appearance of well -being. And after his departure, everyone was collected and taken away, even the trees in tubs.

Now in the gambling zone there is a small park with benches and fountains.

- We love to leave things with my husband on Sunday and go for a walk there. In the evening it is very beautiful when the lights light up. The casino has free coffee, the service is great. Well, beer is free almost every day, although I do not drink it. When they come to us, we always go there to rest there, ”says a resident of Molchanovka Nina Georgievna.

Casino "oracle" photo: Alina Pratnikhenko for TD

Locals are sorting out garlic photos: Alina Tratnikhenko for TD

“Yes, we saw so many stars here as you won’t see in Moscow,” her husband adds.

In the casino, according to stories, holidays are often organized with the participation of Russian pop stars. The entrance there is free, here are the farmers and use the moment. Everyone is very satisfied.

“Well, it happens, you’ll play a little more in the watermelon,” Nina Georgievna blurts out.

It turns out that the pensioner loves, no, no, and to experience good luck. Puts a little, a hundred rubles. And often wins. As a rule, a thousand rubles.

“She rejoices at any win as a child, claps her hands, screams,” says her husband Sergey Ivanovich. - Coming, in general. I can’t play, I am not lucky. I'm leaving right away.

The farmers say that pensioners from a neighboring village of Shabel love to bet. And some were lucky. Lemonia country, in a word.

No one remembers compensation

The owner of a grocery store and a hotel named Inna says that everything will have to be closed if the gambling zone is liquidated. The main clients are players. In 2012, he and her husband opened a store in Molchanovka, in 2014 they built a hotel. Planned to expand. But then the “swing” began-they close, they will not close the gambling zone. For several years, entrepreneurs have actually been sitting on suitcases. Inna says that if everything is curled up here, then they will have to look for work in another place, even, probably, to leave their native places somewhere.

An abandoned farm near the gaming zone photo: Alina Testnichenko for TD

The foundation for the new building of the oracle casino photo: Alina Testnichenko for TD

- Pensioners are good - they have pensions. And what should we do? There is no work. Men leave to work with a rotational basis, because of this, families are collapsing, children without fathers are left,-Inna laments.
She used to work in a children's camp with a cashier-dresser. Everything suited, there was a stable salary. When the camp was closed, I had to think what to live on. They invested, built a hotel. Now there will be no money, nor work. The local authorities do not say anything specific. They do not even lead about compensation.

Inna and her husband are the only youth representatives in Molchanovka. They have two daughters. A school bus is transported to the girls, specially arrives for them.

The youngest Polina is in the 8th grade. To dance, it often remains to spend the night with a grandmother in Shabelsky. In Molchanovka, the child, except for household chores, has nothing to do.

“From entertainment - cleaning garlic,” the girl laughs.

Hotel room at the Orakul casino photo: Alina Testnichenko for TD

Stove in the house Photo: Alina Tapetnichenko for TD

Grandmother Polina, Lyudmila Ivanovna, lived in Molchanovka all her life, worked as a laborer on a collective farm for 40 years. He says that once in Molchanovka there was an elementary school, a hospital, and even a club. Her husband worked there as a cinema mechanic. With pain, he says that nothing of this had happened. The former head of the Shcherbinovsky district allowed the destruction of the last dairy farm. In 2014, 600 bulls stood in it on fattening. Everyone was cut out and taken to the Sochi Olympics. Since then, the farm has been abandoned.

Yuri - a relative of Lyudmila Ivanovna - offended the thresholds of the local administration for six months and asked him to sell the farm to work. Did not give. They preferred to stand and destroy.

If the gambling zone closes, the silence will die. People talk about this with pain.

- You will definitely write that we are all against the closure of the casino. What does our government think about?! Our children work there. All loans took, only began to live normally. Two and a half thousand people send to the labor exchange - is this normal? It would be okay to work. And then everything was destroyed, we have no work with us. Here, in a casino, young people from Shabelsky work, with a glacial, from Nikolaevka. They are carried from Yeysk, from Shcherbinovka. Even from Rostov they carry it for free, ”Lyudmila Ivanovna asks us.

Grandmother says that from the pluses of the casino - they held gas for free in every yard. For a small farm, this is a big thing.

Against the closure of the casino and Nina Georgievna with Sergey Ivanovich. They have a son -in -law with an electrician there. I am very pleased with the work. Until recently, Sergei Ivanovich himself corrected the family budget, working as a janitor at Azov City.

Guest House in Molchanovka Photo: Alina Pratnikhenko for TD

- 14 thousand I had a salary. You work for two days, rest for two days. The budget corrected. Now I have already become old, resting, ”says the pensioner.
He recalls that earlier the locals at least could catch fish in the sea and hand over the state. Helpers were good for the families. There were so many sturgeons that they didn’t even eat them. Now the military is not allowed to the sea - only 36 kilometers to Ukraine. Yes, and there are no more sturgeons.

-In the Taganrog bay from Rostov-on-Don, all chemistry is drained, sometimes the smell is terrible. They poison the fish, ”Sergey Ivanovich laments.
The pensioner is sure that if not for Sochi, the city would have been built in Molchanovka for a long time. Say, what does this gambling zone make money from Sochi? Those who go to Azov City will not go to Sochi. Well, let there be two gambling zones, let people earn.

"They don't give a damn about us"

Among the employees of the Oracle casino, due to the decision of Prime Minister Medvedev, the mood is decadent. Someone has already begun to look for work. But for now, to no avail.

- The zone works, brings profit. Why close? We created this beauty out of the blue, the service is good. Now everyone wants to close. And this leapfrog is already tired of the laws. I have been in the gambling business for 20 years, and the rules of the game are constantly changing. Now they are considering the law so as not to pay compensation for these buildings, ”says Casino manager Alexander Timofeev.
Assistant manager Leonid until the creation of gambling zones for 8 years worked in a casino in Rostov-on-Don. Then he arrived at Azov City. He settled in Yeysk, married, his son had already gone to the kindergarten. They took the apartment in a mortgage.

- If there was one, probably, I would not have worried. But now there is responsibility for his wife, for his son. We are all worried that we will have to break away from the place. It is not known whether they will take in Sochi to work. You never know what requirements are there, ”Leonid is upset.

Grocery store in Molchanovka Photo: Alina Testnichenko for TD

Corridor at the hotel at the casino "Oracle" photo: Alina Pratnikhenko for TD

He says that in Oracle there used to be 40 gaming tables. For each they paid 250 thousand rubles per month of taxes. Then the tax at one table was raised to 500 thousand. I had to reduce the number of tables. But still, a billion in the form of taxes is paid to the budget of the Krasnodar Territory. And there are also 500 slot machines, a tax for each per month - 7 thousand rubles. Who is bad from this?

In addition, the casino leadership is sorry for the forces invested in staff training. It lasts two months, people get something like a scholarship.

The waitress Nina immediately after school came to work as an interns in a cafe at a casino. She is from a small farm of the Yeisk fortification a few kilometers from the Azov City. For five years of work, I found her husband here, went on maternity leave, made repairs in the house, bought a car. The girl says that if the casino is closed, then her family with a huge degree of probability will have to leave her native farm.

Such as Nina and Leonid, in the casino - every second. If the gambling zone is closed, not only almost three thousand employees, but also their family will lose stable income. People cannot understand why no one thinks about it in Moscow. In a small farm, Molchanovka is all sure that the Azov City is closed only so that the owners of the Casino Sochi become even richer.

“We know who the hosts are there.” Everything is not enough for them when they are already naughty. Do they really give a damn about ordinary people? - Molchanovites are indignant.

New road towards the gambling zone

And only the senior officer of the Kuban Cossack army rejoices:

- Maybe when the casino is closed, these gamers will think about how they live.