Kangwon Land Inc, operator of Kangwon Land (pictured), a South Korean resort with the only casino in the country open to locals, reported a 62.2-percent year-on-year decline in its second-quarter net profit to KRW60.63 billion (US$43.5 million), as the rise in the group’s operational costs outpaced casino-sales growth.
That is according to unaudited results Kangwon Land Inc filed on Tuesday to the Korean Exchange, plus infomation in an earnings presentation deck.
In the second quarter, Kangwon Land Inc’s sales reached KRW360.7 billion, with the bulk of them – or KRW331.5 billion – classified as casino sales.
The second-quarter casino sales tally – mostly via gaming revenue generated from “mass tables” and slot machines – registered 8.6-percent year-on-year growth.
The supplementary information noted Kangwon Land Inc achieved 9.4-percent year-on-year growth in its second-quarter table drop – the amount exchanged for chips – to KRW1.47 trillion. The company attributed that rise to enhanced betting limits on some gaming tables during the reporting quarter.
Kangwon Land Inc’s second-quarter non-gaming sales declined 9.6 percent year-on-year to KRW29.2 billion.
The casino operator’s operational costs – inclusive of wages and contributions to local funds – rose by nearly 15 percent year-on-year to KRW302.9 billion.
The second-quarter results took Kangwon Land Inc’s cumulative sales for the first half this year to circa KRW726.56 billion, up 2.9 percent year-on-year. The casino operator’s interim net profit, on the other hand, declined by 46.3 percent year-on-year to KRW136.38 billion, according to its Tuesday filing and the earnings deck.
The company noted in the deck of its budgeted capital expenses for fiscal year 2025, which totalled KRW126.2 billion.
Of that capital spending, circa 67 percent – or KRW84.7 billion – was budgeted for what Kangwon Land referred as “operating investment”. That covers “casino mass floor expansion and renovation”, “casino VIP floor renovation”, resort facility upgrade, and the construction of a second casino at the site.
The cumulative spending under the “operating investment” heading had reached KRW51.1 billion by the end of the first half this year.
