A Scottish architecture firm is to design one of only four legalised "gambling zones" in Russia, following a government ban on casinos earlier this year.
RMJM is to create a multi-billion-pound casino and five-star hotel on a remote site near Cape Turtle, Vladivostok - one of the gaming areas to be created following a change in law in July.
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin mooted a ban on gambling in 2006, when he was president, after the Interior Ministry linked several gambling operations in Moscow to Georgian organised crime. President Dmitry Medvedev moved the law forward and thousands of casinos were shut overnight.
Edinburgh-based RMJM, which worked on the Scottish Parliament (above) and designed the Falkirk Wheel, recently opened an office in Vladivostok - the Siberian city where it has contracts to create two hotels for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in 2012.
The gambling zone will include a five-star hotel with casino, shops, exhibition centre, aqua park and indoor ski centre. There will be a marina for gamblers wanting to arrive by boat.
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RMJM's chairman for Russia, Dr Vladimir Kvint, said: "Vladivostok is rapidly becoming a destination of choice for many international visitors. A project of this nature is a logical progression."
The other three zones will be in the Azov Sea region, Kaliningrad and the Altai region. Vladivostok is the most easterly point on the Trans-Siberian railway, connecting Siberia to Moscow.