Malaysian tycoon Vincent Tan is looking for partners for to develop casinos in South Korea and Japan.
The founder and head of the conglomerate Berjaya said he may pursue an IPO in Singapore to fund the projects, one of which, Gotjawal Village on the popular South Korean tourist island of Jeju, broke ground last year.
Berjaya, whose diverse holdings in real estate, retail and hotel management include Malaysia’s TOTO sports lottery, also owns 100 acres on Japan’s Okinawa island, which has been identified as a possible casino district if the Japanese government legalizes the industry.
Berjaya subsidiary Berjaya Land is partnering on Jeju with the Jeju Free International City Development Centre, a public-private subsidiary of the government’s Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. Plans call for luxury hotels and private residences, a retail mall, entertainment and sports venues and a medical center. The project is not yet licensed for gaming.
Tan has sought to develop a resort casino on a similar scale in Malaysia but has been unable to win government support for dismantling Kuala Lumpur-based Genting Group’s monopoly at Resorts World Genting just north of the capital city. Plans were unveiled last year for a $930 million destination at Berjaya’s 18-acre Berjaya Hills resort in Johor on the border with Singapore but ultimately were abandoned.
If anything, the government is moving in the other direction. Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail recently announced that his office is drafting revisions to laws governing online gambling in a new push to rein in a thriving underground gambling industry estimated to be generating more than US$1 billion in profits a year from thousands of illegal e-casinos and betting operations nationwide.
