Sands asks Korea to lift casino restrictions

Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation

By Shim Jae-yun

Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands, called on the Korean government Wednesday to open doors so that it can invest here and set up a casino, along with convention and exhibition facilities.

He said that the company is willing to pour in huge amounts of money to construct an integrated MICE resort. MICE stands for meeting, incentive travel, convention and exhibition.

“In Singapore, for instance, we invested $3 billion from 2005 to open the Marina Bay Sands resort in 2010. We can make much more of an investment in Korea,” he said during a symposium held at the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) office in Seoul.

Given the success in Singapore, Adelson said there is little chance of failing in Korea.

“Now it is high time for the Korean government to play a more active role,” he said. The firm has been seeking to set up the facilities including a casino accessible to domestic tourists for many years.

He cited the fact that several Asian nations such as China and Japan have been expediting efforts to attract investment for the construction of such a resort.

Participants in the conference cited the need to promote the MICE industry in a bid to create more jobs, revenue and increase the national competitiveness of the tourism sector.

KTO President Lee Charm said, “The resorts in Las Vegas in the United States, alone, can accommodate 5 million tourists, compared to 250,000 in Korea.” This also compares to Hanover of Germany which can handle 450,000 people.

“Besides exports of automobiles and IT products, Korea now needs to focus on the construction of large-scale infrastructure,” he said.

Asia accounted for 28 percent of the $150 billion worth global MICE market in 2010 and is currently seeing rapid growth annually.

President-elect Park Geun-hye has picked MICE as a future growth engine alongside plans to raise Incheon as global cooperative hub.

“Despite the pledge, however, the government’s assistance for the MICE industry has remained very minimal,” said Oh Sung-hwan, chairman of the Korea MICE Association, which organized the conference.

There has also been criticism over the move to allow foreign investment in resort facilities, in particular, casinos.

“We need to cautiously approach the issue in consideration of various factors such as negative sentiment over the gambling sector with regard to its addictive nature as seen in the case of Gangwon Land,” an industry source said on condition of anonymity.

“The next administration will face difficulties unless it takes a cautious stance on the issue, though an economic impact is expected from the foreign investment,” he said.