Lawrence Ho, the co-chairman of Macau casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (MPEL), is planning a gambling resort on the outskirts of Vladivostok in Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an individual acquainted with the deal.

Summit Ascent Holdings Ltd. (102), a Hong Kong-based firm that is certainly 37 percent owned by Ho, signed a preliminary agreement to invest within a “gaming and resort improvement project within the Russian Federation,” according to the company’s June 28 filing for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The businessman, a son of gambling magnate Stanley Ho, has been expanding his casino business at property and overseas. Within the Philippines, Melco Crown is partnering with Belle Corp. (BEL), the business controlled by billionaire Henry Sy, to construct a casino resort complex in Manila, the capital city with the Southeast Asian nation.

The Manila casino is expected to price $1 billion. Melco Crown is also investing $2 billion in establishing a brand-new casino resort in Macau, to be known as Studio City which is expected to open inside the middle of 2015.

Summit Ascent’s preliminary agreement on the Russian casino is “subject to fulfillment of a variety of conditions including legal, accounting and construction due diligence,” the business stated inside the June 28 statement. It also needs a definitive investment agreement on or just before Aug. 15, it mentioned. That announcement didn’t disclose the location on the proposed casino resort.

The planned casino will probably be constructed in Primorye, an eastern region bordering China and Korea, and is scheduled to open in the second half of next year, as outlined by the Wall Street Journal. The casino will probably be 1 in the initially in Russia immediately after the country in 2009 banned casino gambling outdoors 4 particular zones, the report stated.

Maggie Ma, a spokeswoman at Melco Crown, didn’t comment on the Russian investment. Samuel Tsang, a business secretary at Summit Ascent, declined to comment on the investment.