{"id":60726,"date":"2017-10-12T16:00:47","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T23:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=60726"},"modified":"2017-10-12T16:00:47","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T23:00:47","slug":"russian-oligarch-pleads-with-vladimir-putin-to-save-azov-city-casinos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/russian-oligarch-pleads-with-vladimir-putin-to-save-azov-city-casinos\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Oligarch Pleads with Vladimir Putin to Save Azov-City Casinos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maxim Smolentsev, president of the Shambala Casino in Russia\u2019s doomed Azov-City casino zone, has written an open letter to President Vladimir Putin, with excerpts printed Wednesday in Betting Business Russia<\/em>, begging him to reconsider the decision to \u201cliquidate\u201d the area\u2019s fledgling casino sector.<\/p>\n

\"Russian
Casino owner Maxim Smolentsev publicly accused Vladimir Putin of deception over casino zone locations and the future of Sochi, in 2014, before the Russian government decided to turn it into a casino zone at the expense of Azov-City. (Image: Al Jazeera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The government in Moscow has told Azov-City\u2019s three casinos that they must close by Jan. 1, 2019, to make way for the establishment of a new gambling zone in nearby Sochi.<\/p>\n

Russia launched a major crackdown to take control of gambling in 2009, closing down casinos, card clubs, and slot parlors in all its big cities, exiling all gambling activity to four far-flung economic zones. The designated destinations were Azov City in the Krasnodar region, Primorye near the Pacific port of Vladivostok<\/a>, Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea coast, and Altai in Siberia.<\/p>\n

Sochi\u2019s Rise, Azov-City\u2019s Fall<\/h2>\n

Since the 2009 establishment of casino zones, Azov-City was the only one to have any casinos up and running at all, until the opening of the Tigre de Crystal in Primorye in late 2015.<\/p>\n

But also in that time, Sochi had been transformed by the 2014 Winter Olympics from an all but abandoned resort on the Black Sea to a more polished international tourist destination. With the government wanting to capitalize on Sochi\u2019s status as a host city for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and a Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix, Sochi\u2019s first casino resort<\/a> opened in January 2017.<\/p>\n

Azov-City, meanwhile, would become collateral damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m sure you do not want more than 2,000 Russian citizens to lose their jobs, and the budget to lose 400 million rubles in taxes,\u201d Smolentsev wrote in his letter to Putin.\u00a0\u201cI am convinced that you do not need a social implosion in the Krasnodar Territory, impoverishment and bankruptcy of thousands of families.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Government officials in Moscow did say the three casinos would be compensated for the inconvenience.<\/p>\n

Over One Million Served<\/h2>\n

Smolentsev\u2019s company, CJSC Shambala, has recently pledged to build a casino in the Primorye zone in Russia\u2019s far east, near its borders with China and North Korea. It\u2019s an area to which the government has been desperate to attract investment, and Smolentsev such interest could buy him some leverage with the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in solidarity with you in building a strong economy, a just society and a great Russia,” his letter continued. “And Azov-City is a unique example, when a new resort city began to appear in the open field thanks to the joint work of the state and business.”<\/p>\n

The appeal to Putin to reconsider his decision about the gambling zones gives insights into the world of negotiations between the Kremlin, regional leaders, and Russian oligarchs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow five-star hotels, restaurants with chefs of high class, [and a spa] center are already built here,\u201d Smolentsev\u00a0said. \u201cIn Azov-City, weekly, stars of the domestic stage of the highest caliber perform.\u00a0Over the entire period of the resort’s existence, more than one million people have already visited it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The plea was simple from someone not wanting to see a project built over the better part of a decade suddenly abandoned, the way Sochi was prior to the Olympics. Though perhaps something’s been lost in translation, Smolentsev’s rhetoric seemed rather pointed in its criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cEight years ago, we, the Azov-City investors, were persuaded to believe in the very idea of \u200b\u200bgambling zones.\u00a0We were promised all possible assistance and even guaranteed the gambling zones would be left untouched for 50 years.\u00a0In fact, we were deceived.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maxim Smolentsev, president of the Shambala Casino in Russia\u2019s doomed Azov-City casino zone, has written an open letter to President Vladimir Putin, with excerpts printed Wednesday in Betting Business Russia, begging him to reconsider the decision to \u201cliquidate\u201d the area\u2019s fledgling casino sector. The government in Moscow has told Azov-City\u2019s three casinos that they must […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":60727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,10,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRussian Oligarch Pleads with Vladimir Putin to Save Azov-City Casinos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Russian casino owner Maxim Smolentsev says Vladimir Putin's government deceived him when he built resorts in Azov-City, now slated to be shuttered.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russian Oligarch Pleads with Vladimir Putin to Save Azov-City Casinos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Russian casino owner Maxim Smolentsev says Vladimir Putin's government deceived him when he built resorts in Azov-City, now slated to be shuttered.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/russian-oligarch-pleads-with-vladimir-putin-to-save-azov-city-casinos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-12T23:00:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Maxim-Smoletsev.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"433\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/russian-oligarch-pleads-with-vladimir-putin-to-save-azov-city-casinos\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/russian-oligarch-pleads-with-vladimir-putin-to-save-azov-city-casinos\/\",\"name\":\"Russian Oligarch Pleads with Vladimir Putin to Save Azov-City Casinos\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/russian-oligarch-pleads-with-vladimir-putin-to-save-azov-city-casinos\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/russian-oligarch-pleads-with-vladimir-putin-to-save-azov-city-casinos\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Maxim-Smoletsev.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-12T23:00:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-12T23:00:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Russian casino owner Maxim Smolentsev says Vladimir Putin's government deceived him when he built resorts in Azov-City, now slated to be shuttered.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/russian-oligarch-pleads-with-vladimir-putin-to-save-azov-city-casinos\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/russian-oligarch-pleads-with-vladimir-putin-to-save-azov-city-casinos\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/russian-oligarch-pleads-with-vladimir-putin-to-save-azov-city-casinos\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Maxim-Smoletsev.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Maxim-Smoletsev.jpg\",\"width\":650,\"height\":433,\"caption\":\"Casino owner Maxim Smolentsev publicly accused Vladimir Putin of deception over casino zone locations and the future of Sochi, in 2014, before the Russian government decided to turn it into a casino zone at the expense of Azov-City. 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