South Korean community and business leaders in North Jeolla Province have clashed over proposals to build an integrated resort featuring a casino.
The plan is the brainchild of North Jeolla Governor Lee Won-taek, who was elected in June. Lee wants to ask the central government to allow the casino to admit domestic passport-holders.
Currently, only one casino – the state-owned High1 Resort in Gangwon Province – is allowed to admit South Korean passport-holders.
Many North Jeolla-based business owners have argued in favor of Lee’s proposal, unveiled on July 13.
“The Local authorities use about 30% of the revenue generated at High1, around 300 billion won [$207 million], for regional development,” Jeon An-gyun, a senior executive at the Jeonbuk Federation of Small Business Owners, told the South Korean broadcaster KBS.
Visitor numbers are skyrocketing at South Korean casinos. However, most high-earning casinos are foreign-passport-holder-only venues.
They are mainly based in tourism hotspots such as the capital, Seoul, near Incheon International Airport, or the subtropical island province of Jeju.
North Jeolla Casino Plans: Critics Express Worries
The broadcaster quoted other proponents of Lee’s plan as claiming North Jeolla could use a series of safeguards to “minimize the harmful effects” of opening a casino in the province.
They claimed that applying a “strict Singaporean model” to casino entry would ensure the casino would be a “great benefit to the region.”
Singapore imposes a gambling levy of around $115 per day on domestic passport holders. Casinos must also bar under-21s and people who are involved in bankruptcy-related legal cases.
Lee’s plan would see developers construct the integrated resort in Saemangeum, reclaimed land that was formerly 400 square kilometers of wetland off the Yellow Sea coast.
Reversing Economic Decline
While business booms in many parts of South Korea, North Jeolla’s economy has been in decline for several decades. Its once-highly profitable agricultural and heavy industry sectors have shrunk.
Politicians say the province’s population is declining by 10,000 people a year. They also say fiscal self-reliance is about half the national average and bemoan that only three of South Korea’s most valuable corporations are headquartered in North Jeolla.
Lee said that building a casino complex will encourage firms to develop nearby tourist facilities, thereby driving up visitor numbers in Saemangeum.
The governor also claimed several firms had expressed interest in investing in the complex. But anti-gambling advocates hit out at the proposal, claiming it could encourage gambling addiction and cause financial hardship.
“For ordinary people, it is extremely difficult to recover if gambling ruins their lives,” a North Jeolla-based anti-gambling activist told KBS. “The wealthy, the asset holders, may be able to recover and may dismiss it as a form of entertainment. But that is not the case for us, and not for ordinary people.”
‘Semiconductors, Not Casinos’
Choi Young-gi, a Professor in the Department of Tourism Management at Jeonju University, bemoaned the fact that neighboring regions are in talks with chipmakers “while North Jeolla Province is discussing casinos.”
Other academics suggested Lee’s proposals could hit regulatory hurdles.
“Even if a special law were enacted to make an exception for North Jeolla, various issues could arise,” said Hong Seok-bin, a Professor at Woosuk University’s College of Liberal Arts. “People would ask: ‘Why is the central government carving exceptions for only Gangwon and North Jeolla? And why aren’t other domestic metropolitan and provincial governments allowed to do the same?’”
Question marks, however, remain over profitability at High1, while rivals in Jeju and elsewhere post record-high sales.
Last month, South Korean financial analysts slashed their casino earnings estimates in response to government plans to raise operators’ contributions to the tourist fund.
But the same analysts also said that the long-term picture for operators remains rosy, with tourist numbers and gambling handles on the rise.
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South Korean community and business leaders in North Jeolla Province have clashed over proposals to build an integrated resort featuring a casino. The plan is the brainchild of North Jeolla Governor Lee Won-taek, who was elected in June. Lee wants to ask the central government to allow the casino to admit domestic passport-holders. Currently, only
The post South Korea’s North Jeolla Province Divided Over Governor’s Casino Plans appeared first on CasinoBeats.