Seoul to OK casino project on Yeongjong
By Kim Rahn
A mega casino resort construction project on Yeongjong Island, Incheon, is likely to get the approval soon, sources said.
They said Sunday that the government will likely give the green light this week to the project proposed by LOCZ, a consortium of Caesars Entertainment, a U.S. casino operator, and Lippo Group, one of Indonesia’s largest property conglomerates.
They said that the government has re-rechecked the feasibility and financial conditions since the beginning of the month and has decided to approve the development.
“I heard the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will be issuing a positive answer to the application soon,” a source in the industry said.
Another source from the presidential office also said the government will announce a final decision early this week.
The government initially planned to announce its decision on Feb. 27 but suddenly delayed the announcement, saying it needed more documents from the bidder.
“We delayed the announcement previously as we needed to ensure that the bidder could really secure funds for the trillions of won project,” a Cheong Wa Dae official said, on condition of anonymity.
LOCZ plans to build a resort complex on 40,000-square-meters of land in the free economic zone on Yeongjong Island.
The complex will house a foreigner-only casino, as well as a hotel, shopping mall, convention center and other entertainment facilities. The initial phase is expected to be finished by 2018 at a cost of 740 billion won ($691 million). The consortium plans to open more hotels, malls and concert halls through 2022, with the total investment reaching 2.3 trillion won.
Building casinos in resort complexes is part of government efforts to attract Chinese tourists who are major customers at casinos across the world, with competition for such construction growing in Asian countries.
There are eight foreigner-only casinos on Jeju Island, half of the nation’s total, but sales are just 11 percent of total revenue, as there is more demand in or around Seoul.
In a bid to promote the tourism industry, the government plans to introduce a bidding system for selecting casino operators by June, and many global operators are considering applying, such as Wynn, MGM and Okada Holdings Korea.
It also plans to ease regulations for issuing licenses starting in the latter half of the year ― while foreign investors in casinos are currently required to have a credit rating higher than BBB, those with lower ratings will get licenses if they stand out in other areas such as financial liquidity. The change requires approval from the National Assembly.
