Новости Донецка и области

20 августа 2018 года

Expert opinion about the Gambling Zone in Sochi

казино Сочи

Michael Boettcher, Storm International president, who manages Shangri La casino in Tbilisi, Yerevan, Riga, and Minsk, slot-halls in Germany and Belarus, shared his opinion about the development of the gambling zone in Sochi. Before the ban on gambling in 2009, Storm International had five elite casinos in Moscow and numerous slot machines.

Boettcher immediately dropped the optimists from heaven: no gambling zone in history has been realized really successfully, except for Las Vegas in the US and Chinese Macau. And in recent years, Las Vegas casinos have suffered losses, while non-gambling entertainment there remains profitable, which only emphasizes the decline of the casino. Other gambling zones either failed or did not meet expectations.

As you know, in Russia, there are casinos in Azov city, which have a small profit, the Primorsky and Altai zones, as well as the Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi.

What risks do investor have? In Russia, the lack of profitable players, says Michael Boettcher, Shangri La casinos owner, and they will have to be invited, paying them a flight. Perhaps an increase in the tax burden. Additionally, the laws aren’t perfect.

The basic condition is that the casino must be located in the center of Sochi. If this is the case, the expert considers the idea of this gambling zone to be good. Otherwise, it is bad, especially if the territory under the casino is allocated in a mountain cluster where due to the infrastructure, it is impossible to work 365 days a year. In addition, the casino should be created on the basis of exclusively 5-star hotels. In this case, a small casino class below can be located outside the city center.

To make a casino profitable, you need highly paid managers with high qualifications and rich experience, year-round work of a gambling establishment, every day, 24 hours a day; non-traditional ways of advertising, because the advertising of casinos by traditional methods is prohibited. The target audience should not be large - only 2-5% of the Russian Federation's population, only the middle class and the rich.

In 2018, in Krasnaya Polyana, there is only one casino - Sochi Casino and Resort. It has received 30.2 thousand people, and the hall of slot machines "Bonus" - 5 thousand visitors.

The establishments located in the Shcherbinovsky district in the gaming zone Azov city received 38.3 thousand visitors in June, which is 8.4% less than the month before. At the same time, from January 1 2019, gambling zone in Azov will be liquidated by the decision of the government of the Russian Federation.