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Gambling zone 'Golden Coast' to open in Crimea

The area of the zone will be almost 147,000 square meters

MOSCOW, October 28. / TASS /. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a government decree on the establishment of the Golden Coast gambling zone in Yalta (Republic of Crimea), the document is published on the official Internet site.

It notes that the area of the zone, which will be located in the Yalta village of Katsiveli, will be almost 147,000 square meters.

In September, it was reported that the administration of Crimea had already sent documents to the Russian Finance Ministry for the creation of the gambling zone. Then, the head of the Yalta administration Aleksey Chelpanov told TASS that the territory for the former Fortuna health resort would become a platform for this zone.

In an interview with TASS, the region’s top official Sergei Aksenov said that the much-anticipated gambling zone on the southern coast of Crimea will be up and running by 2022. He added that agreements on the creation of the peninsula’s gambling district would be concluded before the end of 2019. "All decisions [on the gambling zone] have been fully executed and all agreements will be concluded this year. The site [for the gambling zone] has already been determined at a public hearing. It is going to be the village of Katsiveli. By November, all formal procedures must be completed. Preparations on the site have already started. We must complete everything in two years," Aksenov stated.

Aksenov stressed that the gambling enclave would primarily focus on deep-pocketed, well-off tourists. "They would arrive at the Belbek airport (a military airfield in Sevastopol, where a civilian terminal is now being built - TASS), from where they would drive to the southern coast of Crimea," Aksenov said, giving an example of the possible logistics for players who arrive to play at the casino. He added that with the help of investors, the authorities would be able to organize the gambling zone according to world standards.

The law to create this gambling area in Crimea was signed in 2014. According to expert estimates, this project would help the regional budget earn up to 25 bln rubles ($391 mln) annually. Earlier, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea and the republic’s Finance Minister Irina Kiviko said that the regional authorities sent a package of documents on the gambling zone’s creation to Russia’s Finance Ministry of Finance. Currently, the transfer of the land plot owned by the republic to an investor is underway.