Caesars Entertainment Corp will soon introduce its first casino in Asia after South Korea gave its preliminary approval for a casino to be built in the country. The casino will only be open to foreigners with the intent of becoming a larger tourist destination. This is a big coup for Caesars as they have been behind most of the gambling industry with expansion into the Asian region as the continent continues to grow in revenue from gambling.
The new casino will also been remarkable due to the fact that it will be the first foreign venture allowed to enter the casino industry in South Korea. The venture is made up of Hong Kong’s Lippo Ltd, Singapore’s OUE Ltd , and Caesars which is based in Las Vegas. The market in South Korea is even more promising due to how close it is to China and the many wealthy men of China that are expected to cross into the country for entertainment purposes.
South Korea does not allow its own citizens to gamble outside of one remote casino, however, they allow overseas visitors to gamble in an effort to offer a boost to a lagging touring industry. At the moment there are 16 casinos that operate on a small scale and cater to foreigners only. This will be the first resort casino that is aimed at attracting people with glitz and glamour similar to US themed resorts.
The complex is going to be easily accessible to tourists and will be situated close to the Yeongjong Island international airport. It is expected to cost $2.2 billion and will take several different construction phases to complete. The goal is to have to the casino before the 2018 Winter Olympics takes place in Korea since this will be the largest boost to Korean economy in decades.
Caesars just missed getting a strong property bid in Macau which is the largest casino capital in the world. Macau regularly brings in seven times more gaming revenue than Las Vegas. Therefore, the South Korea bid should make them pretty happy. There is one other resort being planned by Chinese and Singapore developers on the Jeju Island, but Caesars will be the only American owned casino in South Korea at this date. News of the new casino caused a surge in property developer shares and also boosted their partners’ shares by 35% for Lippo and six percent for OUE.
Other foreign firms including MGM and Wynn have also expressed interest in attempting to build casinos in South Korea and the government is hoping to make the process easier by allowing an open bidding process for all companies looking for foreigner only casino building permissions. The bidding process would be less of a hassle then requiring approval formally by the government before work can begin. Casinos are beginning to take off in many Asian counties including Vietnam and the Philippines where governments are also attempting to build foreign tourism with the creation of large themed casino resorts to help attract high rolling gamblers.