What are the statistics of the current Kazakh gambling market?
LL: At the moment it is impossible to give any statistics. The fact is that after the law came into force operators were given only three months to move out from the cities to the gaming zones. A number of gaming venues was closed, some of them were turned into discos, cafes and restaurants, and a lot of gaming venues went underground. As a result, official information on gambling venues disappeared from the official statistics: they do not have official web sites, there is no information about them neither in events guides, nor in search engines. According to the official statistics as of early November 2008 ten licences were issued for betting shops, four licences for totalizators, and one for casinos! E: How many casinos operate legally today? LL: On October 1, 2008 the first and so far the only legal casino, Flamingo, was opened. By November 11, 2008 the second legal Kazakh casino Moulin Rouge was supposed to be opened in the city of Kapchagai. But it does not operate at the moment
