Landlocked Kazakhstan has remained a mystery to the western traveler for centuries, unknown save from the pages of Marco Polo or Kipling. Few outsiders have experienced the charms of this central Asian country, other than the merchants who plied the Silk Road. Yet since Kazakhstan gained its independence in 1991 and especially under the farsighted and benevolent presidency of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country has flourished. As the nation flourishes, so do Kazakhstan casinos. Flushed with oil money, it’s boom time in the gambling establishments of this former soviet republic. There are seven cities that have within them legal casino facilities of which there are exactly twenty-eight such places. Indeed if you are hungry for a bet, the tables are the only game in town, as Kazakhstan casinos are the only gambling operations permitted there.
Most notable to the dedicated gambler must be the former capital and largest city in the country, Almaty, that veritable Las Vegas of central Asia, boasting no less than 18 casinos and counting. With a soaring nine percent growth per year, the Kazakh economy has expanded enormously in the last ten years and with it the Kazakh...