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The confirmed number of Kyrgyzstan casinos is something in a little doubt. As details from this nation, out in the very remote central part of Central Asia, often is difficult to acquire, this might not be too bizarre. Whether there are two or three approved casinos is the thing at issue, maybe not in fact the most consequential article of information that we don’t have.

What will be credible, as it is of most of the ex-USSR states, and absolutely correct of those in Asia, is that there will be a lot more illegal and bootleg market gambling halls. The change to authorized wagering didn’t drive all the underground places to come from the dark and become legitimate. So, the bickering regarding the number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls is a small one at best: how many legal ones is the element we are seeking to reconcile here.

We know that located in Bishkek, the capital municipality, there is the Casino Las Vegas (a remarkably unique name, don’t you think?), which has both gaming tables and slot machines. We can also find both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. The pair of these have 26 slot machines and 11 table games, divided between roulette, chemin de fer, and poker. Given the remarkable likeness in the size and layout of these 2 Kyrgyzstan gambling dens, it may be even more surprising to see that the casinos share an address. This seems most bewildering, so we can clearly conclude that the list of Kyrgyzstan’s casinos, at least the legal ones, is limited to 2 members, 1 of them having altered their title not long ago.

The country, in common with many of the ex-USSR, has undergone something of a accelerated conversion to capitalistic system. The Wild East, you may say, to reference the anarchical conditions of the Wild West a century and a half ago.

Kyrgyzstan’s casinos are in reality worth checking out, therefore, as a bit of anthropological research, to see dollars being played as a type of collective one-upmanship, the conspicuous consumption that Thorstein Veblen talked about in nineteeth century u.s..