• Bloomberry Resorts is selling Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino in South Korea
• Bloomberry is returning to being a Philippine-only casino operator

Bloomberry Resorts is calling it quits in South Korea and selling its Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino.

Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino in South Korea is pictured in January 2025. Bloomberry Resorts has agreed to sell the Jeju Island casino. (Image: Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino)

On Monday, the Philippines-based gaming firm announced its intent to sell the boutique casino resort located on the holiday island that it has owned for a little more than a decade.

Bloomberry Resorts Corporation hereby discloses that its South Korean indirect subsidiary, Golden & Luxury Co., Ltd., has signed a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) under which it will spin-off (Demerger) its casino business to a separate new company and then sell said new company to Gangwon Blue Mountain Co., Ltd. (Buyer),” Bloomberry said in disclosure made with the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bloomberry said Gangwon Blue Mountain made a down payment of 500 million Korean yuan (US$348,794). Few details about Gangwon Blue Mountain have been made public, though it’s said to be a local company.

“The completion of the transaction and payment of the purchase price shall be conditioned on completion of the Demerger, due diligence, and regulatory approvals,” the disclosure added. The final purchase price wasn’t disclosed.

Bloomberry’s Bad Bet

Jeju is South Korea’s largest island with more than 700 square miles. It was formed two million years ago by the eruption of a submarine volcano.

Jeju is located roughly 50 miles south of the Korean Peninsula, rendering ferry service from Wando upwards of 2.5 hours. The nearest major city is Gwangju, with its 1.5 million people, about 100 miles north.

Seoul is almost 300 miles away. Nonstop flights are quick at a little more than an hour, and cheap, with round-trip fares as low as $50.

Bloomberry acquired the Jeju casino and hotel in April 2015, when it was known as T.H.E. Hotel and Vegas Casino. At the time, Bloomberry was bullish on Korea, with the thinking that it could transform the country into a major destination within Asia for conventions and exhibits. Along with Jeju, Bloomberry acquired over 50 acres in the Incheon Free Economic Zone, with plans for a destination casino resort.

We are slightly shifting our focus to other destinations,” Bloomberry Chairman Enrique Razon said at the time. “It is good business to start prospecting, and Korea is a likely choice because of its positive investment climate.”

The positive outlook quickly deteriorated. Paired with the COVID-19 pandemic, Korean lawmakers in 2021 opted to extend Kangwon Land as the only casino for Koreans through 2045.

Razon admits Jeju Sun was a bad bet for Bloomberry.

[Jeju] wasn’t a wise investment because, so far, it’s foreigners only,” Razon told Inside Asian Gaming in 2020. “If locals cannot play, then you can never make a real resort. It will always be small … and you’ll probably have difficulty growing.”

Bloomberry folding on Jeju Sun returns the firm to a Philippines-only casino company. Bloomberry owns and operates Solaire in Manila’s Entertainment City and Solaire North in Quezon City, north of the downtown capital.

Korean Blues

Jeju Sun’s sale comes after Mohegan lost control of Inspire at Incheon International Airport. Unlike Bloomberry, Mohegan went ahead with its investment at the Incheon Free Economic Zone, a $1.6 billion project that was a financial disaster for the company owned by the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut.

Mohegan CEO Ray Pineault announced last week that he is retiring.

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