Governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov spoke about the problems faced by regional officials responsible for the development of the Yantarnaya gambling zone. He stated that the project turned out to be difficult and cannot be definitely called successful.

Alikhanov noted that the attracted investor could not fulfill the obligation to develop the special territory, and the authorities were forced to terminate the contract. In the near future, the regional government will look for new partners - companies that want to build a casino.

“The investment contract for further development, and there is still a very large territory, we terminated, because they do not have time to fulfill their obligations in terms of the volume of investments. Now we are preparing the final offer and are ready to work with different investors,” Alikhanov said.

Chairman of the regional government Harry Goldman said that the territory of the gambling zone will be divided into several sections to attract several investors and reduce risks for them. 682

Сейчас на территории ИРЗ «Янтарная» действует Sobranie casino and the Magic Crystal slot machine hall. In the future, the authorities plan to open several more casinos, a hotel, a conference center, a SPA complex in the dedicated area and equip the resort area. The timing of the project has not yet been announced.

The Yantarnaya gambling zone was established in 2008 by order of the Russian government. Initially, it was planned that at least 15 casinos and 20 hotels would be built on the territory of 479 hectares. The project stalled already at the initial stage, since the regional authorities could not find investors for a long time. In 2015, the territory of the IRZ was cut down to 99.5 hectares.