[3] Gaming is in the Ötscher region of Austria, an area that offers many natural attractions to tourists.

[citation needed] The Ötscher region also contains one of the last ancient forests existing within Central Europe.

[6] The population has been steadily decreasing over the past few years, due to a number of factors that have affected Austria in general since the 1970s, including: decreased birth rates, changes in attitudes towards marriage and bearing children, and increased contraception.

[10] Consequently, the forests became the essential resource as well, since extreme heat was needed to make iron products.

[8] In 1330, Duke Albert II of the Habsburg family got the endowment to form a charterhouse in Gaming.

[14] The Carthusians who occupied the Kartause were given numerous resources, including many large tracts of land which were rented out to tenants, used for farming and for the raising of livestock.

Those who lived on this land paid their dues with cheese, oats, clarified butter, roof shingles, and hoops made for wine barrels.

[16] Over the course of about 200 years, the Kartause degraded, due to mishandling by its owners, lack of funding, and the damage caused by the Russian troops who began to occupy it in 1945.