Insight AZOV CITY, RUSSIA
A preponderance of gold and neon marks out the Shambala Casino (left) and the Oracul Casino (below), the first and only casinos in the Azov-City gaming zone in Russia.
THE ROAD TO SHAMBALA
New casino developments will double the size of the Azov-City gambling zone in Russia, though the expansion adds only two new locations
Five days before the opening of its latest casino in Azov City, casino group owner, Maxim Smolentsev, celebrated the third birthday of JSC Shambala’s original Shambala casino, which opened to the Russian gaming public on September 27, 2010.
In any other location the creation of competition, even from within the same group, could be seen as a negative, but for the new Nirvana Casino, which opened on October 18, 2013, it’s postively advantageous. Russia’s four gambling zones haven’t exactly sparked the imagination, nor drawn the crowds or investment as planned. The Nirvana casino is just the third casino to open in the region to date, with the Sambala and Oracle casinos, plus a hotel complex (also owned by JSC Shambala) the only evidence that Azov City is a designated gaming zone. And with 10 gaming tables and 200 slots each, the dreams of ‘Las Vegas in the East’ remain precisely that.
Accordiing to Mr. Smolentsev, the creation of a second casino by the company is designed to create greater choice and attract new customers. Mr. Smolentsev has said that both projects are similar in terms of investment at 200m rubles and that the new casino area is the same as that of the Shambala, at around 1,500sq.m. The new casino was expected to open with 250-300 slot machines and 10 table games.
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Mr. Smolentsev’s company owns two of the four casinos currently operated in Russia’s Krasnodar gambling zone, also called Shambala and Nirvana. Prior to the introduction of Russia’s casino gaming ban, Mr. Smolentsev’s company had been a leader in the gambling industry in the province.
Speaking about the reasons for creating a rival to his company’s first casino, Mr. Smolentsev said that the opening of Nirvana in Azov-City will have a positive impact on the Shambala. "Competition is needed now,” stated Mr. Smolentsev. “For three years nothing happened, and for a time we’ve all become accustomed to the status quo and relaxed. So, impetus for development is needed right now. We need a competitor, and I really want to compete with the casino Nirvana.”
Until the opening of Nirvana, Azov-City offered players two casino options; Shambala and Oracle. The Oracle casino is owned by casino developer Royal-Time Group, which in 2013 also began the third expansion stage of its casino to increase Oracle from the current 4,000sq.m to over 11,700sq.m. At the same time, JSC Shambala is creating its third casino, a much larger project at around 18,500sq.m. Both developments include hotel complexes and are scheduled to open to the gaming public in 2014.
Royal Time Group is the owner of Oracul, the first Azov-City casino, which opened at the beginning of 2010. The 1,500sq.m facility has since expanded to 4,000sq.m and is presently building a hotel complex, which will form the largest part of the resort. When the authorities of Krasnodar region represented the Azov-City gambling zone investment project in 2009, they declared that the airport, seaport, and a high-speed highway would be constructed. They also planned to construct resort facilities for elite leisure: hotel complexes, yacht-clubs, aqua- parks, marines, golf clubs, horse-racing and other lifestyle facilities for the up- scale leisure and entertainment market. The regional administration estimated a stream of visitors up to six million persons per year from the countries located within a two hour flight. Unfortunately, we are still waiting...
“There will be enough players for all these casinos, whereas the most necessary development for the zone right now is hotels; there is simply not enough rooms for everyone. The gaming halls are already overcrowded,” said Royal-Time Marketing Director, Valery Saparin.
Each year the Shambala casino is visited by approximately 100,000 people and according to the regional prosecutor's office, since the beginning of 2013 gambling establishments in Azov-City paid the regional treasury approximately 87.1m rubles in taxes.
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