Three More Casinos Will Be Permitted

By the end of this year, two foreigners-only casinos in Seoul and one foreigners-only casino in Busan will be acquiring new permits.

Jung Dong-chae, minister of Culture and Tourism, said on September 3, “To support tourism and to balance the number of foreigners coming in and out, we have decided to permit additional foreigners-only casinos in Seoul and Busan.”

To ensure transparency and public benefit during the permit obtaining procedures, only the Korea National Tourism Organization and its subsidiary companies can acquire permits. All the profits from the casinos will be used for public utilities, such as supporting visits to North Korea, expanding infrastructures for the tourist industry, supporting regional developments, and supporting the alienated class.

If the Korea National Tourism Organization turns in its applications by the end of November, the government will decide, at the most, three (two in Seoul and one in Busan) places through a permit eligibility screening and make the casinos commence operations starting in the second half of next year.

The government estimates that each foreigners-only casino will make an annual profit of 59.3 billion won (average profit of five mainland casinos, excluding the eight casinos in Jeju Island), and that if three new casinos open in Seoul and Busan, they will earn foreign currency of $150 million (178 billion won) annually.

Meanwhile, companies that are already running foreigners-only casinos urged the government to reconsider, saying that the government’s decision to permit more casinos is disregarding the reality. The companies say, “In the current market structure, of which Japanese make up 70 percent of the total customers, new casinos will not create more demand. $150 million is an unrealistic estimate.” Other people point out that if two casinos are built in the middle of city, Koreans will be open to gambling and receive an impetus to gamble, even though the casinos are only for foreigners.

Pastor Won Gi-joon said, “Compared to teenagers from other areas, the teenagers of abandoned mine areas where Gangwon Land Corporation is built are much more tolerable to gambling.”

There are another concern that the plan to establish mega-resort level casinos in the Incheon Free Economic Zone will possibly stumble.

Seung-Ha Cho summer@donga.com