Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
President Saakashvili promised to turn Georgia into a country where tourism will be the main source of people’s income and a provider of thousand jobs. He succeeded in it partially: Tbilisi, Batumi, Akhaltcikhe, Signagi, Metsnaya turned into tourist centers which attracts guests even from Australia and South Africa. The tourist inflow from Russia is growing year by year. The number of tourists visited the country last year reached 4 million people, i.e. the number of the country’s population just like in countries of developed tourist infrastructure. Saakashvili’s team did a lot for comfort of tourists. However, skeptics predicted that tourism would have a dark side – gambling business. And they were right.
Tourist centers in Georgia, including the capital, turned into a huge casino in several years. The five-star casino “Shanrgila” was built along with the office of the Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarchy; Church’s protests were ignored by the authorities because gambling houses give huge revenues to the state and central budget and create thousand jobs. In the country where the unemployment rate reaches 40-50% it is difficult to reject such a “gold mine.”
At the same time, one of the leaders of the ruling coalition “Georgian Dream” Koba Davitashvili thinks that casino defiles young people and leads to addiction to gambling. There are many cases of it: there are poor freaks who sold their flats, hoping that they would win money for a three-room flat instead of a two-room flat in casino. According to Davitashvili, jobs and revenues are not the most important things in the social life: “According to the logic, we should legalize brothels, but we don’t do it!”
Davitashvili proposed limitation of advertizing gambling in the mass media, but he faced not only owners of printed and Internet media, but also the leader of the coalition Bidzina Ivanishvili. Commenting the initiative by the MP, Premier said that they couldn’t take steps “scaring investors off.” Investment into gambling is growing in Georgia – in neighboring countries, Turkey, Russia, and Azerbaijan, casino are forbidden or strictly limited.
Russians come not only to Tbilisi, but also to Kazbegi. It is in an hour from Vladikavkaz, where a smart businessman decided to open a huge casino together with a luxury hotel. Most of other investments into the hotel business are made with casino in mind. For instance, previously popular Tbilisi hotel “Iveria” was reconstructed by foreign businessmen as “Radisson” in return for getting a license for casino which takes the whole ground floor.
“Like in Las-Vegas!” those who want to turn Georgia into a tourist Mecca say. But Las-Vegas is an example of an absolutely different approach to the gambling business, when the state permits the business only in certain areas and punishes for illegal gambling in the rest of the territory. In Georgia there are no such restrictions. 10-15 years ago there were proposals to turn the popular Soviet resort of Tskhaltubo into “Georgian Las-Vegas.” Today in local rest houses hundred refugees from Abkhazia live. An investor was ready to pay huge sums for resettlement of people, but Saakashvili’s interest influenced the situation. He wanted to turn gambling business into an attractor of not only gamblers, but also of common tourists. It was important for Saakashvili that people come not only to Tskhaltubo, but also other towns of Georgia.
Batumi is the brightest example in this sense. It is full of gambling houses which promise big prizes. However, Georgia has problems with it. Davitashvili states that in Georgian slot-clubs you cannot win – unlike many other states, Georgian laws do not restrict norms of a gain for slot machines.
The gambling business in Georgia turned into a state within a state, it has its own infrastructure, lobby organizations in all power branches, including political parties. It is a separate culture of modern Georgian life. Half measures will be useless.
