New Asian casinos. Paradise SegaSammy Co., Ltd. investor, Sega Sammy Holdings Inc., a pachinko operator based in Tokyo, announced that Phase I of their long-awaited integrated resort, known as Paradise City, would open in Incheon on April 20. The property will operate under the license currently held by the Paradise Group’s Paradise Casino Incheon (Golden Gate Paradise) which casino and hotel have been integrated into the larger offering with an eventual footprint of over 3.5 million square feet (333,000sqm).
The casino will open as a foreigners-only casino, as the only gaming property open to Korean denizens is the remote Kangwon Land Casino & Hotel in Sabuk-eup, Gangwon Province, which opened in 2000 and is about 3 hours’ drive from Incheon – and even farther from other major population centers such as Busan and Daegu. (READ SO VIETNAM REGULATES LOCALS FROM CASINOS)
The document said the total investment amount for the 333,000-square-metre (3.58 million-sq-foot) site was KRW1.3 trillion (US$1.12 billion). It added: “The amount invested by Sega Sammy is KRW232.9 billion.”
The release additionally stated the casino would be “one of the largest” in South Korea, with 154 game tables, 281 slot machines, and four installations of electronic games offering an aggregate of 62 seats. The casino area will also have restaurants and bars, said the release.
The launch of Paradise City is likely to affect negatively the operating profit of Paradise Co in the short term, but should boost the firm’s revenue and income from 2018 onward, said Seoul-based brokerage Shinhan Investment Corp in a February note.
Brokerage Aegis Capital Corp said in a March 6 note that recent geopolitical tensions between China and South Korea over deployment of a U.S. missile system, could benefit Macau by diverting Chinese tourists away from South Korea.
