GGRAsia – GKL affirms Gangbuk op move to Seoul Dragon City Dec 31

GKL affirms Gangbuk op move to Seoul Dragon City Dec 31

Dec 14, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

One of Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd’s (GKL’s) two foreigner-only casinos in Seoul the South Korean capital, is to relocate from December 31 to Seoul Dragon City, from Millennium Hilton Seoul hotel (pictured) in Gangbuk, the company confirmed in a Tuesday filing to the Korea Exchange.

Gaming operations will start at 6am that day at the new location, the statement said.

Following an enquiry from GGRAsia, the company said an opening ceremony for the new site would be “mid-January 2023” but was unable to provide more detail.

Gaming at the Millennium Hilton Seoul site will end at 10pm on December 30, with hotel bookings for that venue under the Hilton-branded reservation system no longer possible from January 1, 2023, onward, Grand Korea Leisure also clarified to GGRAsia.

Grand Korea Leisure had said in a December 2021, filing that it would relocate its Seven Luck-branded Gangbuk gaming venue to Seoul Dragon City Hotelplex, mentioning that its lease at the Millennium Hilton Seoul was expiring on December 31, this year.

The company told GGRAsia on Wednesday that a pause in gaming at the old site – due from 6am on December 22, to 6pm on December 23 as mentioned in the Tuesday filing – would in likelihood only affect slot play at the old venue up to December 30. The pause was to allow for slot machines to be moved to the new site. The company estimated as a result it would miss out on sales of approximately KRW400 million (US$309,000) during that pause. That assessment was based on the Gangbuk venue’s sales performance from January to November this year.

Grand Korea Leisure’s new lease at Seoul Dragon City was to become active on August 16, this year, being due to run until August 15, 2032, the group had said in its December 2021 announcement. Seoul Dragon City hosts four hotel brands: Grand Mercure, ibis Styles, Novotel, and Novotel Suites, offering 1,700 rooms in total.

Grand Korea Leisure is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization, which in turn is affiliated to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The casino-operating entity runs three foreigner-only casinos in South Korea under the Seven Luck brand: two in the capital Seoul, and one in the southern port city of Busan.