Russia’s casinos are all 홀덤규칙 over the place, quite literally. This might sound a little odd for a country that we know is not all that rich, but Russians do love to gamble, and they like to do so publically.

It is also true that there is a huge division of wealth in the country, with the poor having very little income and the rich with huge incomes. The combination of public gambling and the huge fortunes made very quickly in the post Soviet years has meant an explosion of casinos of all sorts all over Russia. Some of them are frequented so often by those who made those fortunes quickly, it can sometimes seem like they are trying to get rid of them just as fast.

What it is actually is a form of social display, oneupmanship if you like. There is a social status to be gained from gambling not just prodigiously, but without any real care as to winning or losing. It shows that the gambler has so much money they don’t have to worry about whether they win or lose.

Rather like the joke about the two New Russians who meet in the street. One admires the other’s new tie. “How much did you pay for that tie?” Second New Russian, “‘$200.” “Ivan, you fool, I could have shown you where to pay $300 for that!” Yes, it’s a joke, but it does say something about the attitudes toward money that are there right now.

So, Russia’s casinos can be full of people grandstanding. What this also means is that there is no regard for the cost of the places themselves; they are extremely ornate, service has to be perfect, the drinks and food superb, and so on. A very likely snack to be seen in the casinos is caviar (either black or red), and it isn’t eaten sparingly either.

All this can make for an interesting experience in Russia’s casinos. The games will be run along the lines of those in Las Vegas, although many of the managers (or now, a few years after the fall of communism, those who trained them were) are English, and the general experience will be of a very high quality. As long, that is, as you stick to the best casinos in town, for there will also be others, of varying levels of legality, which the non-Russian speaking foreigner might do well not to enter.