The future of gambling in the Eastern European countries is what is driving the current trends in Russia and the Baltic Region.

The Baltics

Countries like Latvia and Estonia in the Baltic Region have only begun to baptize themselves in the gambling world. In the early 1990s these countries crawled out from beneath strict governments and are now exercising their rights to explore more bourgeois freedoms, such as casino gambling.

Currently one of the most active participants in shaping the casino business in the Baltics is the Olympic Casino, a chain of Las Vegas-style casinos throughout Eastern Europe. The Olympic hopes that the future holds opportunity for foreign investors in the region too.

Estonia

In Estonia, a miniscule country most critics claim is miserably bungling its gambling freedoms, Sfinks Casinos is a competitor of Olympic Casino that has set up a small casino business throughout Estonia. The intimate venues provide the very basics of casino gambling by American terms -- slots, Blackjack, Roulette and some poker. Critics of the sudden onset of gambling complain of the shocking preoccupation with gambling that has become symptomatic of a surprising number of Estonians.

Riga, Latvia

In Riga, Latvia, numerous casinos are in operation and nearly all are open twenty four hours a day. Once again, many of these venues are small, offering only a few tables of each game, and not any advertise slot machines.

Russia

Russia’s casinos are innumerable. There are dozens just in Moscow, the city of the Kremlin and Red Square where just a little over a decade ago, Communists would not have dreamed of casino gambling and slot machines. Prior to 1991, Russia was part of the Soviet Union. Besides no gambling, there was also no tourist industry.

The attraction to gambling for economies just out from beneath oppressive rule is great. They observe the habits of other countries, nearly all of which have some forms of gambling. The hopes are that if they can sweeten the pot of their economy enough, foreign investors like big casino tycoon Steve Wynn will want to bid for resort territory. Once big business on a Las Vegas scale evolves, then the gamblers will come, the same as they did to the desert oasis in Las Vegas once upon a time.