Casino sales at GKL S. Korea dip 51pct sequentially in Nov

Dec 04, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Casino sales in November at Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL), an operator in South Korea of foreigner-only casinos, fell 50.6 percent from October, to below KRW5.49 billion (US$5.0 million), and declined 87.8 percent judged year-on-year, the firm said in a Thursday filing to the Korea Exchange.

The result was a softening from October, which had seen casino sales rise 18.0 percent month-on-month, and moderate to a 69.5 percent decline judged year-on-year.

Grand Korea Leisure is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization, which in turn is affiliated to South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The casino-operating entity runs three foreigner-only casinos in South Korea under the Seven Luck brand: two in the capital Seoul and one in the southern port city of Busan.

As a result of an increase in Covid-19 cases in South Korea – and particularly in Seoul – the country’s Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters decided in the second half of November to tighten so-called social distancing protocols nationwide, with measures considered more stringent than hitherto being applied to Seoul and the surrounding region.

The tightening in measures to counter Covid-19 in South Korea has impacted casino businesses across the country. Grand Korea Leisure onfirmed in a filing earlier this week that its Busan Lotte venue would be shut from 12am Tuesday (December 1) until 9am on December 15.due to efforts to limit the spread locally of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

Grand Korea Leisure had said in a November 22 filing to the Korea Exchange that Gangnam Coex Seoul and Gangbuk Millennium Seoul Hilton (pictured in a file photo) – two resorts in the capital Seoul’s metropolitan area – would be closed from 12am on November 24 until 9am on December 8 for the same reason.

As a result of the three temporary closures, the firm said it estimated the associated economic loss – judged against average daily net sales for the July to September period – to reach KRW5.5 billion.

GKL’s table game revenue for November was nearly KRW4.09 billion, down 55.4 percent from the KRW9.16 billion achieved in October, and down 89.9 percent in year-on-year terms.

November’s machine game sales were below KRW1.40 billion, a month-on-month decline of 28.3 percent, and a 70.2-percent contraction on the almost KRW4.69 billion recorded in November 2019.

Last month’s data meant that cumulative casino sales for the first 11 months of 2020 were just above KRW186.02 billion, a fall of 57.9 percent on the nearly KRW441.58 billion aggregated in the same period of 2019.

Cumulative table game sales this year so far were almost KRW161.91 billion, compared to KRW388.02 billion in the same period of 2019, a deterioration of 58.3 percent.

Accumulated year-to-date machine game sales were KRW24.11 billion, down 55.0 percent year-on-year from 2019’s KRW53.56 billion.

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