The complete number of Kyrgyzstan gambling dens is a fact in some dispute. As information from this state, out in the very remote interior section of Central Asia, tends to be arduous to receive, this may not be all that difficult to believe. Whether there are two or three accredited gambling dens is the element at issue, perhaps not quite the most earth-shaking slice of info that we do not have.

What certainly is correct, as it is of the lion’s share of the ex-Russian states, and absolutely true of those located in Asia, is that there will be a great many more not approved and underground casinos. The change to authorized wagering did not drive all the former places to come away from the dark into the light. So, the bickering over the total number of Kyrgyzstan’s casinos is a small one at most: how many legal ones is the thing we are attempting to resolve here.

We are aware that in Bishkek, the capital municipality, there is the Casino Las Vegas (a spectacularly unique title, don’t you think?), which has both table games and video slots. We will also find both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. The two of these contain 26 slots and 11 table games, split amidst roulette, vingt-et-un, and poker. Given the remarkable likeness in the size and floor plan of these 2 Kyrgyzstan casinos, it may be even more astonishing to determine that they are at the same address. This seems most unlikely, so we can clearly conclude that the number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls, at least the approved ones, is limited to two members, one of them having changed their name recently.

The state, in common with almost all of the ex-Soviet Union, has undergone something of a rapid change to free market. The Wild East, you could say, to refer to the chaotic circumstances of the Wild West an aeon and a half back.

Kyrgyzstan’s casinos are in reality worth going to, therefore, as a piece of anthropological research, to see money being bet as a form of communal one-upmanship, the celebrated consumption that Thorstein Veblen talked about in nineteeth century America.