On aggregate, the creation of four gambling zones in Russia costs 727.5 billion rubles ($31.2 billion), which is twice as much as Russia will pay for Sochi 2014 Olympics.
Photo: Dmitry Lebedev
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Gambling Games More Expensive Than Olympic Ones
On aggregate, the creation of four gambling zones in Russia costs 727.5 billion rubles ($31.2 billion), which is twice as much as Russia will pay for Sochi 2014 Olympics. The regions are waiting for investors to cover 80 percent of the amount, but the business is in no hurry to funnel money into those projects. So, if the Finance Ministry refuses to appropriate funds, the deadline for imposing the gambling ban in Russia could be put off from January 1, 2009.
Under the preliminary feasibility studies made out for four gambling zones, Azov-City project appears the most expensive one. The planned investments (both the budget ones and private money) are estimated at 415.9 billion rubles. Kaliningrad project costs 270.9 billion rubles, the Altai gambling calls for 28.18 billion rubles and Primorie needs 12.88 billion rubles. The overall amount stands at 727.5 billion rubles or $31.2 billion.
Of that amount, four governors of respective regions expect the budget to appropriate 101 billion rubles (for infrastructure), while the remainder is to be for the account of regions and private business. For comparison, the Sochi Olympic project costs just 314 billion rubles.
Other figures appear at least of equal interest. According to feasibility studies, four gambling zones are expected to ensure the attendance of 9.45 million people (Azov-City will provide 6.7 million) and turnover of $17.5 billion (Azov-City will yield $11.2 billion and Kaliningrad will generate $5.7 billion).
The market is astonished both by the budget estimates and by expected turnover, specifying that attracting the amount of this extent from private business is impossible in general. Moreover, the common expectation is that just 2 percent of gamblers would visit the zones. As Russia has no more than 3.5 million gamblers overall (5 percent of the working population), the attendance will hardly exceed 70,000. As to turnover of $17 billion, it was $6 billion in the best years of Russia’s gambling, the players specify.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 10, 2008
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