Construction to commence this year
Incheon, South Korea will soon be a true casino destination, with integrated resorts in the pipeline from both Caesars Entertainment and Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment.
As the U.S.-based Mohegans prepare to break ground on their Incheon resort, CEO Mario Kontomerkos says the property will put a lot of emphasis on non-gaming attractions.
The CEO recently told Forbes’ Muhammad Cohen, “We’ve learned a lot of things since we’ve come to Korea—one is that the non-gaming aspects of our development can be as important, if not more important, than the gaming aspects. We’ve learned that Korean consumers are the highest consumers per capita of themed entertainment. We’ve learned that Korean consumers are probably the highest consumers per capita of movies as entertainment.”
He said, “the light has gone on” for company leaders about the importance of non-gaming amenities. “You are going to see us in the next few months aggressively trying to expand our non-gaming offerings in a way that I think will be very, very special,” with an international feel: “Western content, Korean content, plus Asian content. It is truly going to be a very special place.”
Inspire—which will represent an investment of US$5 billion over 20 years—will be based on a 600-acre parcel of land near Incheon International Airport, often called the gateway to the capital city of Seoul.
“We always wanted to make it the largest integrated resort in Northern Asia,” said Kontomerkos of Inspire. “I don’t think Korea has seen this scale of integrated resort and entertainment resort that we are looking to build before, so that’s going to be brand new for everybody in Korea and I think that’s going to knock people over.”
When it opens, Inspire will join Korea’s only current integrated resort, Paradise City, a joint venture of local operator Paradise Co and Japan’s Sega Sammy.
“Inspire is going to be different but also complementary” to Paradise City,” Kontomerkos said. “We are going to be focused on different things. If you look at they’ve done, they’ve done a nice job of creating this concept of an art theme. Ours will be more focused on entertainment, so I think we’ll be complementary and we will be very good for the whole Incheon region.
“Our product is going to be a platform for South Korean and Western from a musical perspective, from a concert perspective, from F&B and retail perspectives. It’s really going to be a melding of both, which I think will be very successful.”
Also in the pipeline is the first Asian casino resort to be developed by U.S.-based Caesars Entertainment Corp. Caesars Korea should be complete “in early 2021,” according to William Shen, the group’s senior vice president and managing director for Korea and Japan. GGRAsia quoted Shen as saying the firm is looking for a “balanced” gaming revenue mix at the resort’s $700 million foreigners-only casino, which is being co-developed with Hong Kong-listed Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. Ltd. on Korea’s Yeongjong Island.
In other Korea news, Paradise SegaSammy Co. Ltd., a joint venture of South Korean casino operator Paradise Co. Ltd. and Japan’s Sega Sammy Holdings Inc., is to allot 10 million shares to its two shareholders, for an aggregate amount of KRW100 billion (US$93.6 million).
The funds will be used for the development of the second stage of the Paradise City casino resort on Yeongjong Island, with a phased opening starting in September this year, Paradise Co. reported in a filing to the Korea Stock Exchange. Phase I will add more non-gaming amenities including hotel rooms, retail shops, a club and spa to the property. The casino there is open only to foreigners.
