A gaming industry trade group, the Association of Korea Gaming Tourism Professionals, launched in South Korea on May 30.
According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the group wants to make South Korea’s casino sector more competitive; train casino employees to better serve their patrons; and also advance the training and licensing of casino professionals.
An Ock Mo, president of the new association, told GGRAsia, “We’d like to collaborate with all 17 casinos in the country as well as professors of tourism at colleges to systematize training of dealers, to promote a service mindset.” She added that the group hopes to change South Koreans’ “negative perception of casino industries” and “collaborate with the Macau casino industry … as well as support the [South Korean] casino industry’s current recruiting.”
The association already has 70 members, An told GGRAsia, including tourism experts and former and present industry professionals. They include some linked to the Kangwon Land resort, the sole South Korean casino open to locals.
Other members are associated with foreigner-only casino operators Grand Korea Leisure Co. Ltd., and Paradise Co. Ltd.
Sometime this year, the U.S.-based Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority will open Phase 1 of the country’s newest resort, Inspire at Incheon near the South Korean capital of Seoul. The $5 billion resort will feature a three-tower luxury hotel, dining and retail venues, a foreigners-only casino, a convention center and what the tribe has described as “the largest entertainment arena in the entire country.”
