[ English ]

The confirmed number of Kyrgyzstan gambling halls is a fact in a little doubt. As details from this country, out in the very remote central part of Central Asia, can be hard to get, this may not be all that bizarre. Whether there are 2 or 3 legal casinos is the thing at issue, maybe not really the most earth-shattering slice of information that we don’t have.

What certainly is accurate, as it is of the lion’s share of the ex-Soviet states, and definitely truthful of those in Asia, is that there will be a great many more not approved and underground gambling halls. The adjustment to approved gambling did not energize all the aforestated casinos to come away from the illegal into the legal. So, the battle over the number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling dens is a tiny one at most: how many accredited gambling halls is the item we are attempting to reconcile here.

We are aware that in Bishkek, the capital metropolis, there is the Casino Las Vegas (a marvelously original title, don’t you think?), which has both table games and slot machine games. We can additionally find both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. Both of these contain 26 one armed bandits and 11 gaming tables, separated amidst roulette, chemin de fer, and poker. Given the amazing similarity in the size and layout of these 2 Kyrgyzstan gambling dens, it may be even more bizarre to determine that they are at the same address. This seems most astonishing, so we can no doubt state that the number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling dens, at least the approved ones, ends at 2 casinos, 1 of them having changed their name a short while ago.

The nation, in common with most of the ex-Soviet Union, has experienced something of a accelerated conversion to capitalistic system. The Wild East, you could say, to refer to the chaotic conditions of the Wild West an aeon and a half ago.

Kyrgyzstan’s gambling dens are in reality worth visiting, therefore, as a bit of anthropological research, to see chips being played as a type of communal one-upmanship, the conspicuous consumption that Thorstein Veblen wrote about in 19th century America.