Eight Exclusive Foreign-Only Locations Fully Opened
Recovery of Business Environment Expected to Take Time
Jeju Island announced on the 4th that eight foreigner-only casinos in the province, which had been closed due to COVID-19, have resumed operations.
Previously, among the eight foreigner-only casinos in the province, five casinos?Jeju Sun Casino, Aramman Casino, Mega Luck Casino, Oriental Casino, and Gongz Casino?had closed due to COVID-19. The remaining three casinos?Dream Tower Casino, Landing Casino, and Paradise Casino?continued operating but experienced a sharp decline in customers, resulting in poor performance.
Accordingly, the Jeju Tourism Promotion Fund, which is mainly financed by casino payments, significantly decreased from 47.5 billion KRW in 2019 to 15 billion KRW in 2020, 4.8 billion KRW in 2021, and 3.6 billion KRW in 2022.
The casinos that had been closed for a long time gradually reopened starting in June last year as visa-free entry resumed and international flights normalized. However, Jeju Island expects that it will take some time for the operating environment of casinos in the province to recover to pre-COVID-19 levels.
The provincial government plans to strengthen supervision to prevent casino operators from engaging in illegal activities as they try to quickly recover from prolonged losses, while also providing administrative support to ensure sound and transparent operations.
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