Kyrgyzstan didn’t realize gambling ban would create crime and corruption

The government of Kyrgyzstan has come to the realization that approving a gambling ban is far easier than enforcing that ban.

On Tuesday, Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Economy posted a draft resolution to its website that would approve a foreigners-only gambling facility as part of an international trade and exhibition center near Manas International Airport outside the country’s capital Bishkek.

The Ministry hopes the new international center will attract foreign direct investment of “at least $200m” and that the finished project will promote “tourism” and “the exchange of cultures,” which it hopes will in turn promote more international investment.

The announcement came four years after the former Soviet republic followed the lead of Mother Russia by banning gambling. Predictably, within a year, the number of underground casinos operating in the country had more than doubled. Clearly unwilling (or unable) to learn from its mistakes, the government went on to ban sports betting this year.