Castaway Zone
The Federal Law bound the Russian gaming business to get concentrated in four zones as of July 1st, 2009. Meanwhile there is not as much as the Government`s decision with regards to the one to be situated in the Far East. Since December 2006, when the law on the gaming business was passed, the plans of locating Primorie`s gaming zone have been changed several times. They considered sites on the coast – in Khasansky district, in the vicinity of Artyom city, which is a half-hour`s drive from the airport, and in the Lazurnaya Bay – a popular place of Vladivostok residents` summer rest.
First, the Muravjinaya Bay was the winner. The Governor Sergey Darkin presented it at the Pacific Economic Congress in 2007. He showed the presentation to investors in Macau and Hong Kong - it did not raise interest, though. The evident weak point of the project is the fact that everything, including engineering infrastructure, has to be built virtually from scratch but the state did not give any promises of assistance.
The idea to develop the gaming zone on Russkiy Island, where the APEC summit will be held in 2012, turned out to be more attractive. The Government allotted funds for creating transport and engineering infrastructure there, as well as for building a bridge, hotels and other facilities. It was planned to expand the tourism potential of the island on this base. The gaming zone ideally fitted it but… the place reserved was finally allotted for building an oceanarium.
The question about a new site was pending for about half a year. But the Governor Sergey Darkin kept saying at all the press conferences: “We would not give our gaming zone to anybody, and it will be built in the south of Primorie. The site will be selected under the criteria of convenience and accessibility for potential visitors. It will become an “anchor” which will enable the region to attract investments in the business.”
A draft law proposing the extension of the law on the great gaming business shift till July 1st, 2012, was submitted to the State Duma but no decision has been made yet.
- Primorie`s administration sent a similar proposal to the Government in October last year but it has received no answer, - said the head of Primorie regional administration`s Department of state regulation of gambling organization and arrangement matters Stanislav Kostetskiy.
At the same time representatives of the Russian gaming business addressed Vladimir Putin with an offer of private-state partnership, so that the infrastructure for all the four gaming zones could be created by joint efforts. They have received no reply either.
Meanwhile the question of the gaming zone location is again burning in Primorie. In December there were three sessions on the matter. As the RG`s correspondent found out, options with the bays of Lazurnaya and Muravjinaya were considered once more. At the first session, they made up their minds on Lazurnaya. But the idea turned out to be too “raw” to become final.
The complications are enough to sink a battleship, and they are connected not only with the huge inflow of finance, which Primorie`s gaming business is absolutely unprepared for. The zone can not be created within populated localities, and these lands are considered to be Vladivostok`s. Furthermore, they should be excluded of the wooded lands category, which can take about a year. At the session that was held on December 30th, it was decided to return to Muravjinaya scenario. The relevant documents were sent to the Government.
the “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”