GGRAsia – GKL casino sales down 26pct sequentially in September

GKL casino sales down 26pct sequentially in September

Oct 07, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL), an operator in South Korea of foreigner-only casinos, said its casino sales declined 26.2 percent month-on-month in September.

Such sales were just above KRW9.41 billion (US$8.1 million), compared to nearly KRW12.76 billion in August, said the company in a Wednesday filing. September casino sales were down 76.5 percent relative to September 2019, when they were just under KRW40.01 billion.

GKL is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization, which in turn is affiliated to South Korea’s 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.

For September, GKL’s table game sales were approximately KRW7.81 billion, down 29.2 percent from the previous month, and down 77.5 percent from the prior-year period.

September’s machine game sales declined by 7.1 percent sequentially, to nearly KRW1.60 billion. They were down 69.8 percent from a year earlier, according to Wednesday’s filing.

GKL’s accumulated casino sales for the calendar year to September 30 fell by 53.0 percent to just below KRW169.43 billion, compared to KRW360.13 billion in the first nine months of 2019.

Table game sales for the January to September period were KRW148.66 billion, a decline of 52.8 percent from the prior-year period, while machine game sales fell by 53.9 percent, to nearly KRW20.77 billion.

On August 23, due to increasing numbers of Covid-19 infections, the South Korean government raised its social distancing requirements to level two in a three-tier system across the country; the measure was consecutively extended and is currently set to remain in place at least until October 11. Additional social distancing measures have been introduced for a number of areas around the country, including Seoul.

According to data released on Wednesday by South Korea’s health authorities, the country had 114 new cases of Covid-19 infection on Tuesday, taking the tally of confirmed infections in the country to 24,353, with 425 deaths among the confirmed cases.