Diamond Fortune to complete new casino development in Primorye by September 2020

Diamond Fortune Holdings, a major casino company in Russia has declared its plans to start operating a new casino in Primorye, the far east region of the country.

Thomas Gibbons, the CEO of Diamond Fortune, said last week that the company is expected to complete the construction of Selena, the planned $900m resort casino complex in the Primorye gaming zone outside Vladivostok, by September 2020.

The CEO said company has earmarked a budget of $220m for completing the project’s first phase, which “will be divided into A and B phases, with the casino being built first at a cost of $70m.”

The company will open 25 hotel rooms to accompany the casino launch in the A phase. A more elaborate hotel complex will be developed in the B phase, in which the remaining $150m will be utilised. The time frame for the B phase has not been specified.

There will be second and third phases after the completion of the initial phase. A second gaming facility called Moon Gate and more hotel space will be constructed during these later stages. Gibbons added that the company would “see how Selena goes first” before proceeding with the later phases.

Primorye has only one operational casino at present: Summit Ascent’s Tigre de Cristal. The construction of another casino, by Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp, is going on, which is expected to be completed in the second half of 2019.

Gibbons said that “there’s enough business around for several casinos” in Primorye, assuming the region’s annual international tourist arrivals continue to rise at 2017’s double-digit pace.

There is a positive vibe around the region following the announcement by Russia’s Ministry of Culture and the Federal Agency for Tourism that the Primorye gaming zone would be included in the “Eastern Ring of Russia,” an inter-regional tourist route through which tourists would find a variety of attractions on Russia’s eastern shores.