The actual number of Kyrgyzstan gambling halls is something in question. As data from this state, out in the very most central section of Central Asia, tends to be hard to acquire, this might not be all that surprising. Whether there are two or three legal casinos is the element at issue, perhaps not quite the most earth-shaking piece of information that we do not have.
What certainly is correct, as it is of many of the old Soviet states, and definitely accurate of those located in Asia, is that there will be a good many more illegal and clandestine gambling halls. The adjustment to acceptable gaming didn’t drive all the illegal gambling dens to come from the dark and become legitimate. So, the controversy regarding the total number of Kyrgyzstan’s casinos is a minor one at best: how many accredited ones is the element we’re trying to answer here.
We know that in Bishkek, the capital municipality, there is the Casino Las Vegas (a stunningly original title, don’t you think?), which has both table games and slots. We will additionally find both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. The pair of these offer 26 slot machines and 11 table games, separated between roulette, chemin de fer, and poker. Given the remarkable similarity in the size and layout of these 2 Kyrgyzstan gambling halls, it may be even more bizarre to determine that the casinos share an address. This seems most unlikely, so we can no doubt conclude that the list of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls, at least the authorized ones, is limited to 2 casinos, 1 of them having changed their title not long ago.
The country, in common with many of the ex-Soviet Union, has experienced something of a fast adjustment to free market. The Wild East, you might say, to refer to the lawless ways of the Wild West a century and a half ago.
Kyrgyzstan’s casinos are honestly worth going to, therefore, as a piece of social analysis, to see chips being wagered as a form of communal one-upmanship, the conspicuous consumption that Thorstein Veblen talked about in 19th century u.s..
