GGRAsia – Kangwon Land to triple casino space in US$1.85bln revamp

Kangwon Land to triple casino space in US$1.85bln revamp

Apr 03, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

South Korea’s Kangwon Land Inc, which operates Kangwon Land casino resort complex (pictured), has announced a KRW2.5-trillion (US$1.85-billion) new phase for the property, that will triple the size of its casino space by 2032.

The information was confirmed on Tuesday by a representative of Kangwon Land Inc in response to GGRAsia’s telephone enquiry.

A company presentation issued that day and reviewed by GGRAsia, said the new phase had the working title “K-HIT Project 1.0”. The ‘K’ stands for Korean, the ‘H’ for High1 Resort, the name of the entire complex at Kangwon Land, the ‘I’ for integrated, and the ‘T’ for tourism.

According to the plan, the resort’s gaming space would expand to 49,500 square metres (532,814 sq. feet) compared to 15,486 sq. ms currently. A total of KRW1.8 trillion of the new investment would be spent on the gaming area.

Kangwon Land, the only casino in the country open to locals, is in a rural upland area three hours east of Seoul. Its promoters recently announced plans to expand the venue’s appeal and marketing effort, in order to draw more players from overseas.

Kangwon Land’s interim CEO Choi Cheol-Gyu had stated in the presentation that the gaming area investment was “addressing the current chronic shortage of [player] seats in the venue.”

It has frequently been reported by South Korean and foreign media that demand from domestic customers is such, that would-be players often have to queue to register for admission

Mr Choi mentioned in his presentation, anticipating a potential competitive threat from Japan’s first integrated resort (IR) with casino, MGM Osaka, though it is only due to open in 2030.

Mr Choi stated: “Since Osaka’s integrated resort in Japan – just 90 minutes away [by air] from South Korea – will open in the future, Kangwon Land’s casino-for-locals monopoly status has effectively broken, therefore, we’d like to invest in a concentrated manner to strengthen [our] global competitiveness”.

His presentation added that since the venue expansion might take seven to eight years, the company would set up a 3,960 sq. ms temporary casino venue near the current venue – at a cost of KRW80 billion – within two to three years.

Business aims associated with the expansion include raising Kangwon Land’s maximum bet limit from its current level of KRW300,000; and refurbishing existing VIP casino facilities by 2027.

The new phase also includes a hotel expansion plan with KRW270 billion to be invested out of the total KRW2.5 trillion; a new villa with swimming pool involving KRW30 billion of investment; and other facilities costing KRW280 billion.

The presentation outlined some of Kangwon Land Inc’s future goals. They included: boosting the annual tally of visits to the resort from the current 6.8 million, to 12 million; increasing the foreign visitor tally by 10 times; increasing the amount of non-casino sales compared to casino sales – as a percentage of total sales – from 13 percent currently to 30 percent; and recruiting 3,400 employees.

The current annual number of overseas visitors to the property was not mentioned in the presentation.

In the fourth quarter last year, Kangwon Land recorded a tally of 569,957 visitors. Local media had reported that during that quarter, there had been 6,138 foreign visitors, or just under 1.1 percent of the total.

In full-year 2023, Kangwon Land Inc’s net income attributable to its owners stood at KRW345.15 billion, up 198.5 percent from 2022, on sales that grew by 9.3 percent year-on-year, to just under KRW1.39 trillion.