Casino sales at the Jeju Dream Tower casino resort, on the South Korean holiday island of Jeju, rose by 14.7 percent month-on-month in May, to just below KRW11.42 billion (US$8.8 million). Judged year-on-year, such sales were up 181.5 percent.
The information was disclosed by the resort’s operator, Lotte Tour Development Co Ltd, in a Wednesday filing to the Korea Exchange. Jeju Dream Tower has a foreigner-only casino (pictured). Its casino sales are reported after deduction of rebates and commissions.
In the latest reporting month, table-game sales were nearly KRW10.69 billion, up 17.7 percent from April, and a 194.2-percent increase from a year ago.
Machine-game sales stood at KRW733 million, down 16.0 percent sequentially, but 72.4-percent higher year-on-year.
Hotel sales for May were KRW7.68 billion, an increase of 11.1 percent from the previous month, but down 29.9 percent from a year ago.
The firm gave no commentary on the reasons for the variations.
Casino sales for the first five months this year totalled KRW37.73 billion, up 104.3 percent from the prior-year period.
Table-game sales were nearly KRW34.23 billion in the year to May 31, up 100.9 percent year-on-year; while machine-game sales rose by 143.7 percent, to just below KRW3.51 billion.
Hotel sales in the January to May period stood at KRW32.28 billion, a 32.7-percent decline from the prior-year period.
It was announced in May that Lotte Tour’s casino segment had a first-quarter net loss of KRW2.19 billion, compared to a net loss of KRW1.01 billion a year earlier.
Brokerage NH Investment & Securities Co Ltd said in a memo in late May that casino business recovery market-wide in South Korea should be helped in the second half of 2023 by the return of Chinese visitors to the country, particularly mass-market customers.
