Casino sales in January at Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL), an operator in South Korea of foreigner-only casinos, fell by 43.9 percent month-on-month, to KRW19.59 billion (US$14.8 million), the company said in a Friday filing to the Korea Exchange. The latest monthly tally was down 38.9 percent from the prior-year period.
In January, table-game sales were just under KRW16.51 billion, down 48.4 percent sequentially, and a decline of 43.2 percent from a year ago.
Machine-game sales were just under KRW3.09 billion, 3.6-percent higher than December, and up 2.3 percent from a year earlier.
The company’s cumulative amount of “drop” – money paid by customers to purchase gaming chips – was KRW303.33 billion for January, down 17.3 percent sequentially, but up 11.3 percent from January 2023.
The company gave no commentary on the reasons for any of the changes.
Grand Korea Leisure runs three foreigner-only Seven Luck-branded casinos: two in the capital Seoul, including in Gangnam (pictured), and one in the southeastern port city of Busan.
The company is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization, which in turn is affiliated to the country’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
