Russia Takes a Spin on the Wheel of Fortune: Casinos with Mixed Results

The Russian casino industry is seeking to shed the seedy image of its early years and is now embracing a diversified business model. It looks to the legendary gambling mecca of Las Vegas, in the U.S. state of Nevada, as a model. More than 50% of the revenue generated by casinos there comes from hotels, restaurants, spa centers, and highly sought-after shows and concerts. Russian gaming zones are also making progress in this area, as evidenced by figures from the Russian Association of the Entertainment Industry and Event Tourism (AIRIS). Over the past three years, the share of non-gaming services in total revenue has risen to nearly 30%.

Four Gaming Zones

There are four zones in Russia where gamblers can legally roll the dice: Yantarnaya in the Kaliningrad Oblast, Sibirskaya Moneta in the Altai Region, Primorye in distant Vladivostok, and the tourist magnet Krasnaya Polyana (pictured) in the Black Sea region of Krasnodar. The Krasnaya Polyana gambling zone, located in the mountains above Sochi,  replaced Azov City in 2017, which was located on the border between the Krasnodar and Rostov regions and ultimately had to make way for the ambitious Krasnaya Polyana mega-project near Sochi, built for the Winter Olympics.

According to the Association of Casino Operators (AIRIS), the four gambling zones welcomed a total of approximately 1.74 million guests in 2025, representing a 3.4% increase over the previous year. By comparison, Las Vegas had 35 million visitors last year. More than half of them tried their luck in the numerous casinos of the glittering city.

The gambling zone in Krasnaya Polyana attracted the most visitors: 904,000, a slight increase from the previous year. Far behind is the Tigre de Cristal Casino in the Primorye gaming zone with 383,000 visitors, a 6.8% increase from 2024. The Sobranie Casino, which translates to “Assembly,” in the Yantarnaya zone near Kaliningrad welcomed 282,800 guests last year and recorded the highest growth rate among Russian gambling venues at 13%. The Altai Palace Casino in the Siberskaya Moneta zone had the fewest guests: 165,000 (+2.3%).

Gamblers from near and far

According to AIRIS, the proportion of foreign guests varied significantly from casino to casino last year. The proportion of foreign visitors at the Far Eastern Sobranie Casino was 20%, in Krasnaya Polyana it was 17%, and at the Altai Palace it was 6%. However, the casinos are showing a clear downward trend in this regard. For example, the proportion of foreign visitors in Krasnaya Polyana was still around 25% in 2019. Most foreign gamblers come from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and China.

The Primorye gambling zone generated a net profit of 2.1 billion rubles in 2024, equivalent to 23.1 million euros, on revenue of 4.9 billion rubles, 54 million euros, representing a 22.5% increase compared to 2023. In the same year, the Sobranie Casino reported a net profit of 74 million rubles (815,716 euros) and revenue of 9.38 billion rubles (103.4 million euros)—a 13% increase over the previous year. No current figures are available for the financial results of Krasnaya Polyana and Sibirskaya Moneta.

The gap between Russian casinos and their international competitors is evident when comparing them to the Chinese Special Administrative Region of Macau, the world’s largest gambling hub. Its annual gross revenue in 2025 amounted to $30.8 billion, a 9% increase compared to the previous year, according to figures from the industry portal SBC Eurasia.

Potential Tax Windfall

Tax revenues from the four Russian casino sites totaled 2.6 billion rubles last year, 28.6 million euros—Krasnaya Polyana alone contributed 1.56 billion rubles, approximately 17.2 million euros. This figure is roughly on par with the previous year’s result and is far below the industry’s former tax revenues. In 2005, the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) estimated the market volume of the Russian gambling industry at $6 billion. In 2006, tax revenues amounted to 31.1 billion rubles, or 342.8 million euros. In 2010, however—the first year after the reform establishing four gambling zones took effect—only 65.8 million rubles (725,326 euros) flowed into the state treasury.

Last week, the Russian Ministry of Finance’s proposal to legalize online casinos in Russia made headlines. Online casinos would then be subject to taxes amounting to 30% of their revenue. The proposed initiative could generate annual revenue of around 100 billion rubles—equivalent to 1.1 billion euros—for the Russian state budget. According to the business newspaper Kommersant, the revenue from illegal online casinos is enormous: The estimated value is 3 trillion rubles, or 33 billion euros. This far exceeds the volume of the legal betting market, which stands at 1.7 trillion rubles, or approximately 18.9 billion euros.

Has casino reform failed?

The impetus for casino reform came from the flourishing gambling industry in Russia, which had spread into the apartment blocks of numerous Russian cities since the 1990s in the wake of market democratization. Slot machines in ordinary apartment buildings and supermarkets were not uncommon, as market participants from that time report. It is precisely from this period that the ironic term “Odnorukij Bandit” (one-armed bandit) for slot machines originates, reflecting the unease over the industry’s dubious practices. As early as his first term as president, Vladimir Putin equated gambling with the “alcoholization of the population.” The Russian head of state wanted to rein in the lucrative gambling business, and the government finally got serious in 2006 with a draft law to create gambling zones. The law went into effect on July 1, 2009.

However, critics consider parts of the reform to have failed. According to economic expert Nikolai Oganesov of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TPP RF), the reorientation was intended to serve the development of remote and structurally weak Russian regions. However, practice has shown that the casino business relies on convenient transportation links and a steady flow of tourists and should also be located near major metropolitan areas, the expert continued. Oganesov admits that none of the four gaming zones met these requirements from the outset.

Following the restrictions on the gambling industry in Russia, many casino operators have gone underground, industry representatives explain. Their conclusion: Online casinos and illegal gambling venues are now generating significantly more profit than before the reform, as operators pay no taxes and enjoy enormous popularity in the internet age.

This article first appeared in the exclusive newsletter of the German-Russian Chamber of Foreign Trade