Gala party to follow on March 2
Landing International Development Inc. tells GGRAsia the casino at its Jeju Shinhwa World resort in South Korea will open by the end of February.
The developer isn’t leaving much room for error; Chris Block, casino executive vice president for a subsidiary, Landing Entertainment Korea Company Ltd., said the casino, located inside the Jeju Shinhwa World Marriott, will open to guests starting February 28.
The “working date” will be followed March 2 with a “gala grand opening,” Block added.
“This is tentative and it is anticipating the process goes as it should,” he said. “The casino has been totally finished since December.”
First, Landing wants to relocate 16 slots and 28 gaming tables from its foreigners-only casino at the nearby Hyatt Regency Jeju. Official consent to do so must be granted by the local legislature, which is not due to convene until February.
Located on 618 acres on the holiday island of Jeju, Jeju Shinhwa World includes an amusement park with 20 rides; a pair of luxury hotels and multi-purpose convention facilities; and a 344-unit Somerset Jeju Shinhwa World condominium complex with a water park, retail quarter, spa and restaurants.
Block said the casino will draw a wide range of patrons. “We don’t have a single target. We have a junket area, we have in-house VIP area, premium mass and mass.”
He expects the VIP and junket segment to account for approximately “60 percent” of business, and the casino will have “three of the top five junkets from Macau,” although he did not disclose their names. “We also have rooms that will be dedicated to casual junkets,” he added.
“We had a lot of experience in the super high-end casino, Les Ambassadeurs Club and Casino in London. And 80 percent of our business there was from Mainland Chinese. We also have experience in this market, and we’ve been running the casino at Hyatt for the past two years plus.”
Block helped run Les Ambassadeurs, an elite gaming venue in London, until it was sold last year for HKD2.5 billion (US$319.8 million).
