The confirmed number of Kyrgyzstan gambling dens is something in some dispute. As data from this nation, out in the very remote central area of Central Asia, tends to be difficult to achieve, this might not be too bizarre. Whether there are 2 or three authorized gambling halls is the thing at issue, maybe not in reality the most earth-shaking bit of data that we don’t have.

What will be credible, as it is of many of the old Soviet states, and absolutely truthful of those located in Asia, is that there will be a lot more not legal and alternative casinos. The change to authorized wagering didn’t empower all the former casinos to come out of the dark and become legitimate. So, the clash over the total amount of Kyrgyzstan’s casinos is a tiny one at best: how many authorized gambling dens is the item we’re seeking to answer here.

We understand that in Bishkek, the capital municipality, there is the Casino Las Vegas (a marvelously original title, don’t you think?), which has both table games and slot machine games. We can also see both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. The two of these have 26 one armed bandits and 11 table games, divided amongst roulette, twenty-one, and poker. Given the amazing similarity in the sq.ft. and floor plan of these 2 Kyrgyzstan casinos, it may be even more bizarre to see that they share an address. This appears most unlikely, so we can clearly conclude that the list of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls, at least the legal ones, stops at 2 members, 1 of them having changed their name a short time ago.

The state, in common with nearly all of the ex-Soviet Union, has undergone something of a accelerated conversion to free-enterprise economy. The Wild East, you might say, to allude to the chaotic ways of the Wild West an aeon and a half ago.

Kyrgyzstan’s gambling dens are almost certainly worth going to, therefore, as a piece of anthropological research, to see cash being played as a type of social one-upmanship, the apparent consumption that Thorstein Veblen talked about in 19th century America.