A committee of Jeju island’s legislative council in South Korea passed on Thursday an agenda item considered mandatory before Lotte Tour Development Co Ltd can transfer its foreigner-only casino licence for Jeju, from its existing Lotte Hotel Jeju to its newly-opened scheme Jeju Dream Tower (pictured).
A plenary meeting of the Jeju Special Self-governing Province Council voted 29 in favour, with six votes against and three abstentions, according to information collated by GGRAsia.
The agenda item on the relocation of the casino would now be sent for a review by the Jeju Casino Supervisory Committee, described as an affiliated organisation, according to a Jeju government representative spoken to by GGRAsia. The person was not able to provide an estimate of how long the review might take.
The ultimate procedure would be the Jeju governor’s final authorisation after the supervisory committee’s review.
Thursday’s agenda item was referred to as an opinion submission on the application for transfer of venue for the LT Casino, a reference to the name used locally for the casino at Lotte Hotel Jeju.
The relocation plan for the gaming permit includes an expansion of the permissible casino area from 1,175 square metres (12,648 sq. feet) – featuring five table games and 51 gaming machines – to 5,367 sq. metres, with 150 table games and 300 machines.
A hotel branded Grand Hyatt Jeju, opened at Jeju Dream Tower in December 2020.
According to the council’s online broadcasts of the plenary meeting, its committee for culture, tourism and sports discussed the Jeju Dream Tower licence-transfer agenda item, starting on March 19.
There was a lengthy debate about a police investigation concerning suspicions that questions posed to the public in a local-government “social impact check” survey and questionnaire in August 2020 – which Jeju Dream Tower ‘passed’ in August 2020 – had been subject to manipulation.
However, that committee eventually passed on Wednesday the agenda item unanimously, and transferred it to the plenary session of the council.
The committee for culture, tourism and sports commented it expected the project to provide “80 percent” of its job opportunities to Jeju locals. It also expected the scheme to assist local young people, and that the developer would produce “proactive” plans regarding educational opportunities for locals and for tackling crime, and expected the resort operator to make “detailed” plans regarding donations to “local communities”.
