Russia’s Tigre de Cristal casino hotel fully booked through end of 2015

tigre-de-cristal-hotel-bookedTigre de Cristal, the first casino to open in Russia’s Primorye gaming zone, is off to a roaring start.

On Thursday, Russian media quoted local officials saying Tigre de Cristal’s 121-room hotel is fully booked through the end of 2015 and that the majority of the guests are from outside Russia. The property, which had its soft-launch earlier this month, is scheduled to have its official grand opening on Nov. 11.

Tigre de Cristal is majority owned by companies controlled by Lawrence Ho, the CEO of casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment. It is the first of four resort casinos scheduled to open in the Primorye gaming zone by 2022.

Primorye is located 50km outside of Vladivostok on Russia’s far eastern coast and while work is being done to improve the region’s transportation infrastructure, not everyone is convinced the current plans will be sufficient. On Wednesday, Yuri Trutnev, the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian President in the Far Eastern Federal District suggested what the region needed was a sea route to the casinos.

Trutnev noted that getting to Tigre de Cristal via the narrow road connecting the property with the main transportation arteries was a lengthy process, and one that would only get more tedious as more gamblers visited the property. The casino is located on the Bay of Formic, and Trutnev suggested efforts be made to “pave the way to the casino sea” to allow a seaborne transit option.

BettingBusiness.ru said Trutnev had also warned Diamond Fortune Holdings to accelerate its construction plans. Diamond Fortune’s $914m Selena World Resort & Casino project is still in its early development stages, but Trutnev said he wanted to see the developer pouring the property’s foundation by Q1 2016, otherwise Diamond Fortune’s investment agreement could be terminated and the property would be offered to other investors.