All news

Crimea promises 'Las Vegas on the Black Sea' to attract tourists

The peninsula’s Vegas-like casino gambling zone will be meant for visitors, especially foreign ones, Crimean head Sergey Aksyonov said

SIMFEROPOL, March 20. /TASS/. The gambling zone due to be created on the Crimean peninsula close to the resort city of Yalta will trigger interest among foreign tourists, Crimea's head Sergey Aksyonov, told TASS.

"(The gambling zone will be meant for) guests mostly. Including foreign visitors," Aksyonov said.

Aksyonov noted that the Crimean authorities are ready to offer investors certain ‘game plan’ strategies that will make it possible to bypass sanctions in implementing this project. "There are certain arrangements that will make it possible to bypass the sanctions. I will keep quiet about such secrets for now. Nobody would agree to invest in this project, if there were doubts this plan might not work," he stated.

The Crimean leader added that construction and assembly work in Yalta’s Zhemchuzhina health resort will begin later this year.

On July 23, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on establishing a gambling zone in Crimea. It should appear on the Black Sea peninsula by 2019. Aksyonov said earlier that a large Russian company is ready to invest about 8 bln rubles ($138 mln) in the creation of Crimea’s gambling zone. According to expert estimates, the regional budget will be able to receive up to 25 mln rubles per year from the would-be gaming industry. In June 2016, the Crimean government defined the boundaries of the future zone, placing it in the locality of Gaspra.