INTERVIEW - Huge Cambodian casino complex planned to lure Chinese

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A South Korean real-estate developer is to build a $400 million integrated resort and casino in Cambodia to target the growing number of Chinese visitors to Southeast Asia and its burgeoning gambling sector.

The resort will be in Siem Reap province, 314 km (195 miles) northwest of the capital Phnom Penh, which attracts over a million tourists a year to its famed Angkor temples, James Cho, vice-president of Intercity Group, told Reuters in an interview.

Construction of the Water Park complex, with hotels, a gaming centre, shopping and convention centres and an 18-hole golf course, will start in October and it should open in early 2012.

Cho said it aimed in particular to draw visitors from other Asian countries, including Thais, Malaysians and Singaporeans.

But the Chinses are a big target clientele.

"They're visiting Singapore, they're visiting Southeast Asia, and we just think that right now it's a very good time, it's the right time. Asian gaming is hitting Cambodia right now," Cho said.

"With the Chinese, the increase in the middle class from China, Southeast Asia is a very good market. There is no visa restriction like they have in Macau," he said.

China has periodically placed restrictions on visits to Macau and its casinos by citizens from the mainland.

Tourism is Cambodia's second-biggest currency earner after its agricultural sector.

The government gained revenue of $19 million from its 29 casinos in 2008, according to Finance Ministry data. That fell to $17 million last year, squeezed by a drop in tourist arrivals and border tensions with neighbouring Thailand.

Thais are a vital part of Cambodia's casino industry. Most forms of gambling are forbidden in Thailand but thousands of Thais regularly visit massive casino complexes just over the border with Cambodia.

Cho said around 2.2 million tourists a year visited Cambodia and 1.3 million of them went to the temples in Siem Reap. The new resort was hoping to attract 60 to 70 percent of them.

NagaCorp, listed in Hong Kong, is currently the only casino operator in Cambodia, with a licence to run casinos within 200 km (124 miles) of Phnom Penh until 2065.

Cho said the Intercity Group casino would be the first sited away from country's borders, part of the Cambodian government's wider efforts to attract more tourists into the country.

"They're making it a very rare exception and allowing a resort with gaming to be built," he said.

(Editing by Alan Raybould)