Korean actor Lee Byung-hun Paradise City brand ambassador

Mar 04, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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South Korean casino operator Paradise Co Ltd has chosen actor Lee Byung-hun as a brand ambassador to promote internationally its Incheon resort complex Paradise City (pictured) and its other venues with foreigner-only casinos.

The news was announced on Tuesday and reported that day by the Korea Times.

The media outlet said the celebrity had been chosen as a representative of the so-called “Korean Wave”. That was a reference to the popularity – especially in neighbouring Asian countries and regions – of South Korean mass culture including television soap operas and K-pop music.

A new advert for Paradise City featuring Mr Lee is to launch in April, said the news outlet.

The Korea Times reported that Mr Lee would also promote Paradise Co’s other foreigner-only casino hotels, located respectively in Seoul, Incheon, Busan and Jeju Island.

Paradise Co said recently in its full-year 2019 results that group wide, the “Japanese VIP” gambling segment expanded year-on-year, accounting for KRW515 billion (US$434.3 million) of the nearly KRW1.52-trillion casino drop achieved across all its casino properties in the fourth quarter, Japan itself is still some years away from getting its first casino resort.

February casino revenue group-wide at Paradise Co rose 16.2 percent year-on-year, the firm said in a Tuesday filing to the Korea Exchange.

Paradise City launched in 2017  with a hotel as well as a foreigner-only casino. The complex has gradually been adding non-gaming facilities since then. It is a venture between Paradise Co and Japanese entertainment conglomerate Sega Sammy Holdings Inc.

A message currently on the Paradise City website says some non-gaming facilities have been temporarily closed at the resort in response to the South Korean government’s declaration on Saturday that the country was at a “critical moment” in its fight to contain a novel coronavirus infection.

The shuttered non-gaming facilities at Paradise City are: the Cimer spa; the Wonderbox theme park; the Chroma nightclub; and the Studio Paradise media production facility.

A Wednesday online announcement from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 516 additional cases of infection with Covid-19 disease linked to the novel coronavirus had been confirmed in South Korea as of Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases at that point to 5,328, with 32 deaths.

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