Jeju Island gambling expansion not coming together as expected

Jeju Island, South Korea is a unique international travel hotspot that offers diverse activities for tourists. This is part of the reason it has been chosen as an ideal location for casinos and integrated resorts (IR), with eight of the country’s gambling venues located there. At least two more IRs have been planned, including Landing International’s Jeju Shinhwa World and New Silkroad Culturaltainment’s Glorious Hill, but development isn’t occurring as quickly as anticipated. Both of these properties are way behind schedule and developers are in the process of trying to secure more funding to keep their South Korean island dreams alive.

According to a filing by Landing, it is going to issue new shares so that it can gather additional capital to continue working on its IR on Jeju. The company, which already operates the Landing Casino at the site, is ready to place 586,979,742, increasing its issued shares by 20%, at $0.23 each. That will allow it to pick up just under $17.7 million in net proceeds to help cover the more than $1-billion price tag of the property.

Landing has had a difficult couple of years, and last year’s final numbers weren’t impressive. In 2018, the company reported a loss of around $90.4 million, and 2019 was worse with a reported loss of $274.7 million. The bulk of that negative impact came from Landing Casino, which saw its revenue drop by 85.7%.

In order to try to put the casino back on track, it is going to start to “regularly organize regional and global poker and baccarat gaming tournaments as part of its ongoing efforts to promote and position Jeju Shinhwa World as a desirable destination resort.” In addition, it will host “marketing promotions, events, reward scheme, competitive mass and VIP gaming programs will launch continuously to energize the business in the future.”