GGRAsia – Paradise City temporarily shut due to Covid-19 case

Paradise City temporarily shut due to Covid-19 case

Sep 02, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

All facilities at the Paradise City casino resort (pictured) near Incheon International Airport in South Korea – including its gaming venue – have been shuttered “temporarily” from Tuesday, until Thursday (September 3), after an employee tested positive for Covid-19.

The foreigner-only casino at Paradise City is scheduled to resume operations at 6am on Thursday, with the remaining facilities at the property reopening at 1pm, according to an online notice from the resort.

Paradise City launched in 2017 with a hotel as well as a foreigner-only casino. The complex has gradually been adding non-gaming facilities since then. It is a venture between Paradise Co, a South Korean operator of foreigner-only casinos, and Japanese entertainment conglomerate Sega Sammy Holdings Inc.

In Tuesday’s notice, the resort’s promoter affirmed that a staff member at one of the property’s restaurants had tested positive for Covid-19. It added that all staff members at the affected venue had complied while at work with precautionary guidelines from the South Korean authorities, and had been wearing face masks.

Paradise City nonetheless decided to “temporarily close all facilities” at the resort in order to prevent the further spread of infection and to carry out emergency disinfection measures, according to the notice.

“During the closure period, we will closely cooperate with the relevant authorities regarding quarantine measures, in order to conduct a thorough disinfection of the entire property, including the [affected] business site,” said Paradise City. “We will do our best to ensure that customers can return with confidence.”

A spokesperson for Paradise Co last week told GGRAsia that South Korea’s government had not asked the foreigner-only casino operators to close their gaming venues amid a recent spike in Covid-19 infections in the country.

The promoter of Kangwon Land, the only casino resort in South Korea where the country’s nationals are allowed to gamble, has once more temporarily closed its casino due to Covid-19, citing the fact that the country had moved to a level-two protocol for virus containment, amid the recent increase in cases nationally.