Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL), an operator in South Korea of foreigner-only casinos, said in a Monday filing that “currently” it has “no plans to secure an in-house business site”.
Last month the Korea Economic Daily had published a story headlined: “GKL to build a casino resort in Seoul,” referring to the South Korean capital.
In a January 20 filing to the Korea Exchange, the casino group had described the report as a “rumour” and added “no specific decisions” had been made regarding such a project.
Though Grand Korea Leisure did say at the time, it was “preparing to apply for a preliminary feasibility study with the Ministry of Economy and Finance regarding securing its own business site”.
In its latest filing the group stated it had already “prepared an application for a preliminary feasibility study with the Ministry of Economy and Finance regarding securing its own premises”.
But the firm added that as “the necessary prerequisites were not fully met” to take things further, the company “did not submit an application for the [Ministry’s] preliminary feasibility study”.
The update did not give any the detail regarding the requirements.
Grand Korea Leisure operates three Seven Luck-branded casinos. Two are in Seoul:, namely at Gangnam COEX (pictured); and Dragon City respectively. The third is at Busan Lotte, in the southeast port city of Busan.
All three sites are leased from other parties, according to the data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the government department that oversees the casino sector.
The Korea Economic Daily said Grand Korea Leisure’s annual leasing fees for the three venues were in aggregate between KRW30 billion (US$20.5 million currently) and KRW40 billion.