Casino sales in December at Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL), an operator in South Korea of foreigner-only casinos, rose by 4.6 percent sequentially to KRW38.70 billion (US$26.4 million), according to an update filed to the Korea Exchange on Friday.
Judged year-on-year, Grand Korea Leisure’s December casino sales were up 10.7 percent.
In December, table-game sales were nearly KRW35.64 billion, up 5.6 percent sequentially, and 11.5-percent higher than a year earlier.
Machine-game sales in December were KRW3.06 billion, down 5.7 percent from November but up 2.7 percent from a year ago.
Grand Korea Leisure runs three foreigner-only, Seven Luck-branded, casinos. Two are in the capital Seoul, including one at Gangnam. Its third is 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.
All three gaming venues saw in December a sequential decrease in the number of visitors. The month’s tally actually improved from a year ago, according to supplementary information from the company.
In December, the firm saw a total of 13,815 visitors to the three casinos, a decline by 11.1 percent month-on-month, but up by about 27.8 percent from a year ago.
The December operational results took Grand Korea Leisure’s aggregate casino sales for the full-year 2024 to KRW393.61 billion, down 0.9 percent year-on-year.
In 2024, the Seoul Gangnam casino was the largest contributor to group-wide casino sales, showed the data. It generated KRW180.14 billion in casino sales for the full year, while Seoul Dragon City casino recorded just above KRW154.48 billion in casino sales. The Busan Lotte casino reported sales of KRW58.99 billion in 2024.
In December, Grand Korea Leisure’s three casinos reported aggregate casino drop of KRW275.58 billion, a decline of 5 percent sequentially and 24.8 percent lower than a year ago. For full-year 2024, the firm’s casino drop was nearly KRW3.65 trillion, up 7.5 percent year-on-year.
