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Casino for locals in Korea27 October 2001For Kangwon Land Inc. since its casino opened last year hard times became goods times, an average of 2,300 visitors a day have queued for a turn at its tables. Some sleep on its sofas or floors. Profit has raised. The only casino owner of South Korean where South Koreans themselves can bet starts trading on the Kosdaq market and investors expect a assembly that will establish it as the index's third-biggest stock. Han Sang Soo, who manages $460 million at Daehan Investment Trust Management Co. says "I plan to buy the stock," and that "Koreans just love gambling." Some analysts say they've been spending even more as annual economic growth slows to 2 percent, the weakest in three years. Casinos, horse racing and other forms of gambling accounted for more than 40 percent of the 14 trillion won in revenue in Korea's leisure industry last year. Kim Han Kook an analyst at LG Investment & Securities Co. said "Gambling is one business that is unscathed by the economic slowdown. In fact, the poorer people get, the more vigorously they search for a jackpot." Most of the casinos in the country are open only to foreign bettors, many of them Japanese visitors to Cheju Island, which has eight casinos. Most of the casinos in the country are open only to foreign bettors, many of them Japanese visitors to Cheju Island, which has eight casinos. And as the owner of the only one of South Korea's 14 casinos that local people are allowed to enter, Kangwon Land thrives even though it's in a depressed former coal-mining region, a bumpy four-hour ride from Seoul. Kangwon Land is 51 percent owned by national and local government agencies, including the Coal Industry Promotion Board, which holds 36 percent. Individuals and companies hold the rest of its 20 million shares. Last year the government gave Kangwon Land a domestic-casino monopoly until 2005, relaxing a decades-long ban aimed at warding off perceived social ills, the casino has been inundated. Kim Kee Hoon, a Kangwon Land spokesman said "We're not advertising, because there's a flood of customers, if we could, we would limit the numbers to offer better service." It is just the first six months of operations and the spending spree gave Kangwon Land a first-half operating profit of 152 billion won ($117 million), compared with a 3.3 billion-won loss in the same period last year. Kangwon Land plans to build a Korean version of Las Vegas next year, complete with 1,600 slot machines, 80 game tables, an 882-room hotel, a condominium-style residential development, 16 ski slopes, a golf course and amusement parks. Analysts note the possibility that a change of government in Korea next year could be followed by a change in policies that benefit individual regions as the casino's domestic monopoly benefits Kangwon province. With foreigners-only casinos suffering losses or lower profits because of a decline in tourism, some analysts think they may petition a new government for permission to let in local gamblers too. |