ARTEM, Russia — On Russia’s eastern rim, where endemic corruption and bureaucratic sloth conspire to hold back the economic dynamism enriching the rest of Asia, a shimmering palace rises from a dark forest in an improbable effort to tap into the wealth of nearby China, Japan and South Korea.

At a time when few Chinese or other investors want to take a gamble on Russia, the forest property, 4,000 miles east of Moscow, beckons deep-pocketed Asians who not only do not mind risk but delight in it — and are ready to wager their money on the baccarat tables and roulette wheels of the Russian Far East’s fledgling answer to Las Vegas.

Tigre de Cristal, the lone casino so far in what the authorities in nearby Vladivostok hope will become a vast “integrated entertainment zone” with eight different betting palaces, is Russia’s biggest gambling complex. Financed largely by a Hong Kong company, Summit Ascent, it is also the single biggest Chinese investment in a region that President Vladimir V. Putin has tried to turn into a showcase of Russia’s “pivot to the East.”

Ever since Nikita S. Khrushchev stopped off in the Russian Far East after a trip to California in 1959 and decreed that Vladivostok had become “a second San Francisco,” the port city’s formidable assets — great natural beauty, location in Asia and a highly educated population — have stirred bold dreams. These have all been followed by bitter disappointment.