Crimea’s regional government plans to relocate gambling zone

While it had been suggested that construction of the first facilities at a sixth gambling zone in Crimea would begin by the end of 2017, it appears that the project has now experienced further delays.

In January, Crimea’s prime minster Sergey Aksyonov signed an order to set up a working group of 14 local officials – including vice premier Vitaly Nakhlupin – tasked with selecting a new land lot for the zone, according to a document was published on the regional government s website.

Speaking to local media, Alexei Chernyak, a local official in charge of tourism, stated that the authorities are looking to find a larger land lot for the future zone.

“The area [we already selected] is too small, we hope it will be bigger. It is not yet known if it will be situated in the south of Crimea or in any other region,” Chernyak said.

There had been reports that an unnamed Russian investor was ready to invest around RUB8bn ($137m) in the new zone, but construction minister Sergei Kononov did not rule out that this investor may withdraw from the project if the zone is relocated.