G3-247 Report SOUTH KOREA
struction of more piers and berth facilities and permit casino onboard run by Korean companies. The plan has faced some opposition however.
Grand Korea Leisure is one company keen to open onboard casinos and is already looking at plans to open its first cruise ship casino travelling between Jeju and Shangai.
GKL says sales at its company could increase by three to eight per cent if cruise ship casinos are permitted.
Meanwhile there are also new land based casino devel- opments in the pipeline. In March this year South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism gave pre- liminary approval for the construction of its first foreign owned casino resort to LOCZ (Caesers and Lippo)
It has sent a wave of controversy around the industry. Those for the plans say why shouldn’t Korea be like its regional rivals whilst those against say Seoul should not end its rules and permit ‘reverse discrimination’.
Caesars Entertainnment Corporation joined with Indonesian conglomerate, Lippo Company to build a casino on Yeongjongdo Island, part of a free economic zone near to Incheon Airport west of Seoul. The cost will be around $2.2bn in total with first stage of the project to be completed by 2018 and final by 2023.
Incheon Airport is a just a two hour flight from many major Chinese cities. However Korea then needs to look at making Yeongjongdo Island a regional gambling hub to lure Chinese tourists and will have to consider build- ing more high class resorts around the airport.
It’s a difficult decision. On the one hand the government is highly cautious given that gambling is still frowned upon as a social evil in South Korea. However the lure of investment and revenues and benefit this can bring are making the idea more appealing.
At the moment Paradise Casino is the only operator in the Incheon area so this of course means competition for them. However the process that supply can create demand is also appealing to the operators who see a new Las Vegas type demand working so there is a posi- tive feeling about the development.
Lippo Karawaci is Indonesia’s biggest listed property developer whose core business is residential and town- ship development including retail malls, hotels, hospi- tals etc.
The casino will be for foreign visitors only but could see more than ₩890bn in tourism income from new visi- tors. It will however be the first integrated resort style foreigners only casino.
The idea is to open the casino in time for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Unlike the current casinos this one will offer three five star hotels, convention cen- tre, theatre, shopping malls and business offices and six football fields. The casino alone will have a floor space of 7,700 sq.m and will be open by 2018 as part of the first phase.
The approval of the Caesars/Lippo project is said to be a 5 7
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