Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority has already expanded beyond the Connecticut base of its flagship Mohegan Sun resort with a Pennsylvania racino and the Resorts casino hotel in Atlantic City. The authority is now looking abroad—and more specifically, to Asia.
MTGA has submitted a $5 billion bid to build and operate an integrated resort in South Korea, at the Yeongjong Island transportation hub west of Seoul. It would be a foreigners-only casino, under one of two available licenses planned to be granted this year in an effort to boost tourism to the country.
Mohegan’s proposal, which is currently among 17 local and international bids for the two licenses, envisions a multi-phase development beginning with a $1.6 billion integrated resort, including a casino and luxury hotel in a resort that would include entertainment attractions, shopping, dining, a theme park and convention facilities. Mohegan’s local partner is the Incheon International Airport Authority.
The proposed IR is among six proposals near Incheon International Airport. Among Mohegan’s competitors in the district is Grand Leisure Korea, which is a subsidiary of the state-run Korean tourism agency. Other bids for resorts near the airport come from Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, a Hong Kong-based jewelry chain; China’s Macrolink Group; and Bloomberry Resorts of the Philippines, according to a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
“While we have previously looked at various development opportunities outside of North America, this is the first opportunity we felt compelling enough to pursue,” Bobby Soper, president of Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, told Yonhap. “It is not only convenient to what will arguably be the largest airport passenger terminal in the world; it is also expandable in several phases that will take full advantage” of Incheon’s beach attractions, boating activities and other amenities.
Soper told Yonhap he hopes to parlay Mohegan’s experience serving Asian clientele to serve tourists from Northern China and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. “Asia, especially China, is experiencing a greater emergence of the middle class and a new generation of consumers with money to spend on entertainment,” Soper said. “We have a very largest Asian clientele at the Mohegan Sun enterprise, and we understand such guests culturally and behaviorally.”
South Korea currently hosts 17 casinos, with only one open to legal gambling by Korean citizens.
