South Korea's largest foreigner-only casino opened in an integrated resort which is under construction near Incheon International Airport, the country's gateway on Yeongjong Island west of Seoul.
The casino is on the first floor of a 10-storey hotel built as part of a large integrated resort called "Paradise City" that would be completed next year in a joint project pushed by Paradise, a local casino operator, and Japanese gaming machine maker Sega Sammy.
It was part of South Korea's ambitious drive to transform the reclaimed island into its own version of Las Vegas, aimed at attracting more Chinese tourists. US casino operator Mohegan Sun and South Korean chemicals maker KCC Corp are building a casino and other facilities by 2019.
The drive, however, hit a snag after China imposed a travel ban in retaliation for the deployment of a US missile shield in South Korea that hurt relations between Seoul and Beijing.
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com and Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com