South Korean tour operator and property developer Lotte Tour Development announced Friday that it is stepping into its home country’s casino marketplace with the purchase of Paradise Casino Jeju Lotte.
The company is set to cover the entire quantity of KRW43.4 billion (roughly $38.8 million) for the gambling facility. Below a share purchase agreement with the casino’s present owner, Paradise Group, Lotte Tour will acquire 100% of the venue’s shares for KRW15 billion plus can cover its debt which amounts to KRW28.4 billion.
Paradise Casino Jeju Lotte operates in the Lotte Hotel, which is part of the Joongmoon Resort Complex on South Korea’s Jeju Island. The gambling venue features 23 baccarat tables, 2 blackjack ones, a roulette table, and 24 slot machines.
Lotte Tour is currently developing a separate integrated resort with a gaming flooring on the Jeju Island together with Chinese developers Greenland Group and China State Construction Engineering Corp.. The property, called Jeju Dream Tower Integrated Resorts, is expected to open doors in October 2019.
Apart from a casino, the hotel will even feature 1,600 hotel rooms managed by Grand Hyatt as well as a number of food and drink facilities. Programmers have said that their aim is to construct the Jeju Island’s tallest and largest building with a whole floor area of 303,737 square meters.
The Jeju Island, a favorite tourist hub, has become a preferred location for even more developers to base their integrated resorts. Hong Kong-listed company Landing International Development has been opening in phases its Jeju Shinhwa World integrated resort with a casino and theme park on the island since last spring.
Visitors Numbers Dip for Third Consecutive Year
Although new resorts are springing and therefore are expected to spring in South Korea in the next several decades, official data indicates that the number of overseas visitors to the country’s casinos fell for a third straight year in 2017.
According to recently published statistics, the nation’s 16 operational foreigner-only casinos attracted 2.22 million visitors in 2017down 6.2% from the previous year. The reduction was attributed to the fallout in the relations between China and South Korea over a missile defense system the latter country has deployed.
South Korea reached a visitor summit in 2014 when its casinos brought 2.96 million overseas patrons. However, visitor numbers have been dropping since then as a result of severed relations with China. Last spring, the Chinese authorities banned the sale of package trips to South Korean destinations, which caused big withdrawal of Chinese tourists. Casino players from Mainland China have been the biggest market for South Korean casinos.
Revenue from the country’s foreigner-only casinos climbed to $1.07 billion final yeardown 2.9% year-on-year. In comparison, Kangwon Land, the company that conducts the only casino in the nation that acknowledges Korean nationals, created KRW1.52 trillion (roughly $1.3 billion) annually.
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