Well that didn’t take long.
Only a day after it was reported that Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev proposed to turn Sochi into a gambling zone after the 2014 Winter Olympics, his spokeswoman Natalya Timakova denied those claims, saying that her boss had issued no such proposals and that the idea actually came from an individual in the banking community.
“The prime minister did not put forward the idea of creating a gambling zone in Sochi,” Timakova said
“The idea was suggested by a member of the banking community.”
Yesterday, the Kommersant newspaper reported about Medvedev’s suggestion, saying that it would be a good way for the government to offset all the costs incurred by businesses with investments in the development of Sochi. The running bill has now reached $50 billion, head and shoulders above all other Olympics in history in terms of its price tag.
But even if Medvedev didn’t explicitly propose the idea, it doesn’t mean that it’s a bad one. With such an expensive project on its hands, the Sochi Games could turn into a money pit for Russia the same way the 2004 Athens Olympics ended up being for Greece. That’s why as early as now, plans on how Sochi can recover from the Olympics need to be put in place, or at the very least, discussed.
Turning it into a casino zone is about as good an idea as you can have given the circumstances. It’s been well documented that the industry has the capacity to generate exorbitant sums of revenue, especially if the casinos are situated close to gambling mad-hatters who can drive up revenues with their free-wheeling style of play.
So even if Medvedev didn’t propose turning Sochi into a casino zone, the idea makes enough sense that it ought to be given the attention it deserves, spokeswoman Timakova’s comments notwithstanding.
