The new governor of South Korea’s Jeju island has halted the groundbreaking of Genting Singapore’s joint venture resort casino and wants to review its plans,
Gov. Won Hee-ryong said in a recent radio interview that the project’s construction application makes no mention of a casino, which provides sufficient grounds to cancel the application, he said.
“Before deciding whether to give permission to the casino application, we need to create a supervisory body for casino operations in the province in consultation with the central government. To do that, it will take at least six months or one year,” he said.
Construction of Resorts World Jeju, as it’s called, is supposed to start in the third quarter. Priced at US$2.2 billion at full build-out, the project is a partnership between Singapore-listed Genting Singapore, operator of Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa gaming resort, and China property developer Landing International.
The comments by Won, a member of the ruling New Frontier Party, appear to clash plans by the central government to reduce regulatory barriers to foreign casino investment to boost tourism and help diversify the country’s export-dependent economy.
However, Won has repeatedly voice his concerns since taking office in June about more casinos on Jeju, which is popular with Chinese tourists and already is home to eight foreigners-only properties.
“Given international casino operators are flocking to Korea with an aim to open casinos for Korean nationals in the future, we must be vigilant about protecting our citizens from unscrupulous operators,” he said.
