This is a guest contribution by Giorgi Mikhelidze. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

When thinking about gambling hubs, people usually imagine places such as Las Vegas, Malta or Macau. But there is one undiscovered spot in the Caucasus mountains—the Republic of Georgia—which, over the last two decades, managed to become a gambling refuge for pretty much every Islamic state in the Middle East.

The population is very small, around 3.6 million people, but this tiny country is able to field a gambling industry that can pack quite a punch.

The gambling industry itself first found its way to Georgia in the 19th century, but the very first casino was opened in the capital, Tbilisi, in 1920, followed by the second largest city in Georgia, Batumi in 1989.