A freshly-located foreigner-only casino opens today (Friday, June 11), at Jeju Dream Tower, a new resort located downtown in the capital of the South Korean holiday island of Jeju.
Lawrence Teo, chief operating officer (COO) and executive vice president at the resort’s promoter, Lotte Tour Development Co Ltd, confirmed to GGRAsia by email on Wednesday, the Friday launch of the casino (pictured).
On Thursday, a representative with the Jeju local government confirmed to GGRAsia that the Lotte-branded casino had passed on Wednesday what the authority termed its inspections of “casino tools” and security cameras.
The casino permit for the Jeju Dream Tower site is technically a transfer of the casino licence that had applied at Lotte Hotel Jeju on the southern coast of Jeju. Won Hee-ryong, Jeju’s governor, signed off on the licence transfer on April 8. The casino that had been at Lotte Hotel Jeju, closed on April 9.
According to a Monday press release from Lotte Tour Development, the casino at Jeju Dream Tower is bigger than the facility that had been at the other venue. For the new site, the local government has approved a 5,367 square-metres (57,770 sq. feet) gaming floor, with 141 tables offered via five types of table game; and 190 slot machines; as well as 78 electronic table games (ETG), including seven, live-dealer run, so-called ETG master tables.
At the old venue, the casino had 1,176 square metres of gaming floor, featuring 27 tables, via five types of table game, and 51 gaming machines.
According to consolidated industry-wide data from South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued in early May, Lotte Hotel Jeju’s casino recorded in 2020 KRW1.346 billion (US$1.21 million) in sales, and received 1,601 unique customers.
Prior to the launch of the Jeju Dream Tower casino, only two out of seven foreigner-only casinos on Jeju were currently operating: Paradise Casino Jeju Grand, run by South Korea-based firm Paradise Co Ltd; and Landing Casino at the Jeju Shinhwa World resort, promoted by Hong Kong-listed Landing International Development Ltd.
