South Korea's tourism ministry said on Tuesday that it has given its first nod for a foreign casino operator to do business in the country, opening the casino market to foreign firms.

LOCZ Korea, a joint venture between Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment and Indonesian conglomerate Lippo Group, got a preliminary permission to open a foreigner-exclusive casino in Yeongjongdo, part of a free economic zone in Incheon, the country' s northwestern port city, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The joint venture failed last June to get an approval for doing casino business due to low credit rating and lack of investing money, which were improved this time.

The casino operator will invest 746.7 billion won (700 million U.S. dollars) by 2018 in building a casino exclusively for foreigners as well as a hotel, shopping mall and convention center.

In the long run, the LOCZ Korea planned to set up a resort complex in Yeongjongdo by investing 2.3 trillion won until 2023.

The company had yet to receive an official license for the casino business, which will be given in January 2018 if it fulfills its investment as planned.

Revenue in the country's 16 foreigner-exclusive casinos jumped 9.7 percent from a year earlier to 1.37 trillion won in 2013, while visitors to the casinos surged 13.6 percent to 2,707,000 last year. Endi

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