Speaking of the "gambling king" in Asia, most people's first reaction is probably He from Macau. If you are more familiar with the industry, maybe you will add a Malaysian Lim Woo-Tong. In fact, there is also a gambling king in South Korea, Tian Leyuan.

Tian Leyuan made its fortune in the era of Park Chung-hee. In 1967, it obtained the first gambling license in South Korea. After more than 30 years of development, it is now far ahead of the other 8 peers who are grouped in Jeju Island, a Korean tourist resort, and directly divided up nearly 80% of the market share of the Korean gambling industry and basically in a monopoly position.

The reason why this Korean gambling king is not famous is ultimately due to the scale of the Korean gambling industry.

Let’s talk about the just-in-one 1998, the total revenue of 12 casinos in South Korea was only 180 billion won, which is equivalent to about 120 million US dollars according to the average exchange rate last year. At the same time, the Paradise Group accounted for 140 billion won, which is about 93 million US dollars. In comparison, Macau, as the number one casino in Asia, has an annual revenue of 13.5 billion Macau dollars, equivalent to 1.39 billion US dollars, which is more than ten times the size of the South Korean gambling industry.

Having said that, the small business with a size of only US$120 million in the country is far from the point of letting Simon come forward.

The reason for doing this is very simple, Simon sees a lot.

And it can see very far accurately.

Simon didn't know much about the gambling industry in his previous life, but he probably remembered some numbers.

The key is Macau. At present, Macau gambling, which was basically monopolized by the He family due to the death of his previous generation, has a revenue of 13.5 billion Macau dollars in the past year, which seems to be more than ten times the national revenue volume of South Korea, but this is just the beginning.

In history, after the millennium, Macau's gambling industry began to explode rapidly. At its peak, its annual revenue exceeded 360 billion Macau patacas, equivalent to about 45 billion US dollars. It soared more than 20 times in just over a decade, and even left the world-renowned casino Las Vegas far behind.

During the same period, Las Vegas, whose gambling revenue was only about US$6 billion, had less than one-seventh of that of Macau, and it could only be regarded as a younger brother.

As for the reasons for the outbreak of the Macau gambling industry, everyone knows.

The Chinese are rich!

Simon probably remembered that Macau carried out a gambling industry reform after 2000, breaking the He family's monopoly position on gambling cards and publicly bidding for photos. At that time, Simon would definitely not let go of such a piece of fat meat.

This is a later story.

Speaking of South Korea, Simon vaguely remembers that about 15 years or so, Chinese real estate developers once invested 10 billion yuan in South Korea, hoping to build casinos locally, and it was marked to attract Chinese tourists.

Therefore, the potential of the Korean gambling industry can be seen.

Of course, Simon also knew that in the next few years, South Korea's own death caused the Sino-South Korea relations to fall into a trough, and he didn't know how the outcome of the Korean casino where Chinese people invested in a hope to make money from the Chinese.

Not to mention it too far, at least at present, the right time, place and people are all there, and Simon must make a move.

As for future events, Simon can only be sure that going to South Korea to build a casino hotel in 2015 is basically equivalent to taking over the highest position. Even if it is completed, there will probably be only some leftovers. Now, the South Korean economic crisis continues, and the rise of China's economy is ready to go. Many people are in a state of confusion that cannot see the future clearly. For the Westeros system, it is definitely the best time to buy at the bottom.

After the millennium, as Chinese gambling players flocked to all directions, the industry was prospering rapidly, and it was not that easy to enter again.

Moreover, even if China and South Korea still have a bad relationship in the future, they will definitely have made back their capital and profits in more than ten years.

What's more, what's the matter with tourists when China and South Korea are in conflict?

It can be as short as three days or as long as three months. Then, those who should run out will still run out. Unless there is an irresistible natural disaster, it is nothing more than collecting less than three or five buckets, which will not hurt your muscles and bones.

In fact, if you look at it, the Westeros system has unknowingly already has a considerable layout in the gambling industry, such as the Golden Retriever casinos taken over by Atlantic City, and the Rifny Resort and Entertainment Center, which started from scratch but developed very well.

There is also Australia. Not only are brothels legal, but casinos are the same. Because they are some kind of foundation, Simon will naturally not let them go. He has been making considerable investments in recent years.

Furthermore, the interests of Simon are so passionate about the gambling industry are one aspect, but more importantly, this is a field with a very large gray area, suitable for many operations that are not very obvious.

With the development of Westeros system to this day, if it is pure and flawless, even if it is not torn into pieces by covettors hidden everywhere, Simon will never have a good time.

Therefore, there are often some things that I am more crazy than you think. At the same time, Simon also built a huge private army that was enough to fight a war in the region, created a private intelligence network with tentacles all over the world, and raised multiple gangster forces scattered around the world... In the final analysis, these are just for self-protection.

Because when Simon is now at his current position, it is impossible to be a pure businessman. After all, this world is too impure, and you can't help being innocent.

Let’s talk about the specific operation.

In South Korea, Simon did not intend to seek cooperation, but planned to use the Westeros system team to do it directly.

With the Westeros system's power in South Korea, it is easy to break the monopoly position of Paradise Group if you want to get a gambling license.

No one did this before, to put it bluntly, that's not what he thought of.

Not to mention the current South Korea, even Macau, with an industry size of only over one billion US dollars a year, there is no need for capable capital to come and get involved with local snakes. After all, everyone knows that this industry is not as simple as a simple business, and it also needs to be managed in all aspects.

However, now, Simon Westeros is attracted by this little bit of "fly profit" from South Korea, which is unexpected.

The result is facts.

When I noticed the operation of the Westeros system in South Korea, as a local snake, Tian Leyuan naturally would not remain indifferent.

After several contacts, the two sides have led to this meeting today.

Simply put, Tian Leyuan took the initiative to seek cooperation this time and was willing to give up quite the initiative.

This surprised Simon.

Think about it, if you put it on King He of Macau, with the other party's temperament, even if you are willing to cooperate, you will only firmly hold control in your hands.

However, if not for this, there would not be a meeting this time.

After all, it's a small business, Simon is not that idle.

Moreover, after a rough understanding, Simon understood the reason why the Korean gambling king made a decision.

First of all, Tian Leyuan, born in 1927, is 72 years old this year, and has never been in good health. He has no energy to fully control his gambling empire. The eldest son of the gambling king, Tian Bili, is only 31 years old this year, the same age as Simon, but of course there is no comparison with Simon. For ordinary people, they are still very young and immature. It is hard to say whether they can take over the burden of Paradise Group.

Secondly, even if it is just a small plate, more and more capital forces have hoped to break the monopoly position of Paradise Group in recent years and frequently asked the South Korean authorities to open up more gambling licenses to let everyone get the share of the pie.

Faced with such a situation, King Tian Gambling became increasingly unable to do so.

According to the information collected by the team recently, Tian Leyuan had already begun to seek listing operations for Paradise Group before the crisis in 1997, and chose the target platform in the Nasdaq market in the United States. Obviously, this can be regarded as leaving a way out for the descendants. Once listed, even if Paradise Group is affected by peers in the future and declines, through cashing out, the children of the Tian family can still accumulate a lot of wealth.

Now, although Simon suddenly wants to enter the Korean gambling industry, Tian Leyuan realizes that this is a better way out than listing Paradise Group.

After all, the thigh of the Westeros system is so thick that it cannot be thicker.

As long as you hold this thigh, Paradise Group's dominance over the Korean gambling industry will be easy to extend for another ten or twenty years.

In addition, King Tian Gambling can see the situation clearly. Even if he gives up control of his own industry, Simon Westeros will definitely not have time to come to take care of it himself and still have to hire people. Although his son is not a good player, he has cultivated a very outstanding team over the years, which can be gradually passed on to his son. At least, ensuring the interests of the Tian family in the Paradise Group will definitely be no problem.

Speaking of interests, since Simon Westeros has taken a fancy to this area, although he still doesn't understand it, the prospects of the Korean gambling industry in the future will definitely be far more than the current scale.

In short, except that you can no longer control the family business, there is no harm in thinking about it.

As for control, in the past two years, even the top chaebols in South Korea have been lying in the Westeros system. Jin Woo-jung, the former leader of the second largest chaebol, was thrown into prison for his foul relationship with the Westeros system. What is the small paradise group in front of such a giant?

In a VIP hall at Wake Villa Casino.

Everyone gathered at a gambling table and played Texas Hold'em in a harmonious atmosphere, and talked about things.

Simon has two people, he and Chen Qing, and the other is Tian Leyuan wearing black-framed glasses and his eldest son Tian Bili.

The specific cooperation details have been finalized in advance.

The revenue of Paradise Group in 1998 was equivalent to US$93 million, but due to the economic crisis, it lost about US$6 million last year. So based on the comprehensive financial data from the past five years, it gave a valuation of US$300 million, which is approximately equivalent to an average price-to-earnings ratio of about 20 times, and is quite a generous offer.

Among them, Tianleyuan's shareholding ratio is 38%, equivalent to approximately US$110 million.

A joint venture plan is initially formulated.

The Westeros system will inject US$700 million into Paradise Group, obtaining 70% of the shares of the new company, and the shares of other original shareholders will be reduced to 30%. At the same time, US$700 million will be divided into two parts, partly 500 million, and will be poured into Jeju Island at one time to build a super entertainment complex integrating casinos, hotels, shopping centers, golf courses and other facilities.

Jeju Island is exactly the future trend of the Korean gambling industry that Simon bets on.

As for the eight small casinos that Jeju Island already owns, they only account for more than 20% of the revenue of the Korean gambling industry. Datou is also a casino in Seoul, Busan and other places under Paradise Group. Among them, this Wake Villa currently accounts for 56% of the revenue share of Paradise Group's four casinos. It can be said that the distribution is very uneven.

What Simon can foresee is that as Jeju Island attracts more and more Chinese tourists in the future, especially after the visa-free measures are implemented, the current imbalance will definitely be reversed and the gambling industry in Jeju Island accounts for the majority of South Korea's related industries' revenue.

While making a heavy bet on this investment, the next focus of the Westeros system is also to lobby South Korean authorities to open up visa-free visas to Chinese tourists on Jeju Island as soon as possible.

Another $200 million is planned to invest in a casino project in Gangwon-do, eastern South Korea.

This has to start from the beginning.

The Taibai Mountains area in Gangwon-do in eastern South Korea was previously a mining area and once produced 80% of South Korea's coal. However, in recent years, the coal resources in the Taibai Mountains mining area have been rapidly depleted, and the result is that as many as 130,000 miners and millions of people who survived around the mining area suddenly lost their livelihoods.

In order to create a livelihood for the former mining area situation, the South Korean authorities passed a "Waste Mine Area Development Plan" in 1997, encouraging the Taibai Mountains region to vigorously develop the tourism industry.

As we all know, coal mine areas are often not suitable for tourism, and so is the case.

So, this special bill opened a backdoor for the local area to allow gambling business.

However, shortly after the bill was released, the Asian financial crisis broke out, and the South Korean government and private capital were all in a state of crisis.

If you don’t have money, no matter how generous the stimulus policy is, it will be useless.

Until recently, the local government finally re-reported the plan to build a casino in the mining area of ​​the Taibai Mountains and is raising funds.

However, there is still no money.

Before the Westeros system expressed interest in this project, local governments and local capital were expected to raise up to 30 billion won, with South Korea currently recovering to around 1,300, equivalent to about 23 million US dollars, and plans to build a small casino hotel.

If the $23 million fund is just building a building, it may be enough, but if you want to build a casino hotel with complete facilities, you can only describe it as just a matter of course.

Therefore, the Westeros system plans to invest 200 million US dollars. In the local opinion, it is like a big Kaizi who is stupid and has a lot of money falling from the sky.

Simon is certainly not Kaizi.

The biggest reason for my fancy to this project is that the planned casino has a privilege, which is that it can be open to South Korea's nationals.

Absolute privilege.

Because before that, whether it was the casino in the central city of Paradise Group or the eight small storefronts on Jeju Island, it was only open to foreigners in the past few decades. Guests need to use overseas passports to enter and exit, and their own people are prohibited from entering.

As for a casino that lands in the ravine, even if it has privileges, can it make money?

Simon had no doubt at all.

In many news reports about the gambling industry, there is always a very unified saying: Americans are good at gambling, British are good at gambling, Germans are good at gambling, Japanese are good at gambling, Koreans are good at gambling, Chinese are good at gambling...

In fact, to put it bluntly, I like gambling if I am a person.

Just like a theory that Simon just mentioned a while ago, production is contrary to biological nature, and plunder is instinct. The so-called plunder means gaining without effort, and losing enough to give more than enough. Gambling is undoubtedly the best channel for people to fantasize about gaining without effort in the real world.

So how could someone not like it?
Chapter completed!