It was announced mere hours ago that Hong Kong-based casino operator and real estate developer Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd. is planning to build a hotel and casino venue near Incheon, where South Korea’s biggest airport is located. The company said that it will invest about $2.6 billion in its new project.
Local authorities stated that this is yet another step towards South Korea’s consolidation as a popular gambling destination.
A spokesperson for Chow Tai Fook could not be reached for further information.
It seems that visitors from Mainland China account for more than a half of all the people who enter the premises of South Korea’s gambling venues. Regulators pointed out that they might grant two more casino licenses in 2015, so as to attract more Chinese players and thus, boost the country’s gaming industry.
An Incheon official, a city located west of Seoul where the resort is planned to be situated, said that Chow Tai Fook is yet to be awarded the necessary casino license by the government of South Korea. According to him, this will happen sometime in 2015.
More and more gambling operators show interest in investing in South Korea, which is only a short plane ride from Mainland China. And, interestingly, they seem indifferent to the fact that the Chinese government is planning to prosecute all those companies which had established offices in the country, so as to be able to attract the attention of locals and allure them to travel to their casinos abroad.
It was only a month ago when the Philippines-based operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp. announced its intention to build a casino and entertainment resort in Incheon. It is to be the company’s first overseas complex.
Chow Tai Fook’s South Korean resort is expected to feature a casino, which will be intended for foreign visitors only, a luxurious hotel, various entertainment, shopping, and conference facilities. They will be built in two phases – between 2015-2019 and 2019-2022.
The site for the new complex is located near the sites of two other casino and hotel resorts, which are planned to be built in the region in the years to come.
Residents of South Korea are not permitted to enter most of the country’s casinos and as it seems, the new venues that are to be launched in the country will be intended only for foreigners, too.
As it was recently reported, the number of Chinese visitors, who entered the country in 2014, increased 42%. Paradise Co. Ltd., the largest South Korean casino operator, shared in a filing that Chinese VIP players account for more than 63% of all the VIP players that enter the premises of its gambling venues.
