The complete number of Kyrgyzstan casinos is a fact in question. As info from this state, out in the very remote interior section of Central Asia, tends to be awkward to acquire, this may not be too astonishing. Whether there are 2 or 3 authorized gambling halls is the element at issue, perhaps not in fact the most consequential bit of information that we do not have.

What will be true, as it is of many of the ex-USSR states, and absolutely true of those located in Asia, is that there no doubt will be a great many more not allowed and clandestine gambling halls. The change to legalized betting didn’t encourage all the underground casinos to come from the dark and become legitimate. So, the debate regarding the total amount of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls is a small one at best: how many legal ones is the element we are seeking to resolve here.

We know that in Bishkek, the capital city, there is the Casino Las Vegas (a remarkably original name, don’t you think?), which has both gaming tables and one armed bandits. We can additionally see both the Casino Bishkek and the Xanadu Casino. Both of these offer 26 slot machines and 11 gaming tables, divided amongst roulette, blackjack, and poker. Given the amazing likeness in the square footage and setup of these 2 Kyrgyzstan casinos, it may be even more surprising to see that they are at the same location. This seems most bewildering, so we can no doubt determine that the number of Kyrgyzstan’s gambling halls, at least the legal ones, ends at 2 casinos, 1 of them having altered their title not long ago.

The state, in common with almost all of the ex-Soviet Union, has experienced something of a accelerated conversion to capitalism. The Wild East, you may say, to reference the anarchical circumstances of the Wild West an aeon and a half ago.

Kyrgyzstan’s gambling dens are in fact worth visiting, therefore, as a bit of anthropological analysis, to see dollars being gambled as a type of collective one-upmanship, the absolute consumption that Thorstein Veblen wrote about in nineteeth century u.s.a..