Grand Korea Leisure Ltd (GKL), a South Korean operator of foreigner-only casinos, said in a Monday filing that its May casino sales fell 73.7 percent year-on-year. Such sales were KRW10.36 billion (US$8.65 million), compared to KRW39.43 billion in the same month in 2019.
The group reported that for May, table games sales were just under KRW8.08 billion, a 76.1 percent decline on the nearly KRW33.76 billion in the prior-year reporting period.
Gaming machine sales for May amounted to approximately KRW2.34 billion, from just above KRW5.67 billion, a year-on-year dip of 58.8 percent.
GKL temporarily suspended on March 24 its casino sites for an initial two weeks, in line with the country’s effort at curbing locally the further spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The closure measure had been extended twice, with gaming operations resuming on May 6, after a 43-day casino shutdown.
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.
Monday’s filing said GKL’s accumulated casino sales for the first five months of 2020 were nearly KRW120.59 billion, down 35.5 percent from a year earlier.
Aggregate table sales for 2020 up to May 31 were KRW107.69 billion, a fall of 33.7 percent from the prior-year period. Accumulated gaming machine sales for the period were KRW12.89 billion, down 47.4 percent year-on-year, according to Monday’s filing.
In May, GKL reported first-quarter net income of just under KRW14.72 billion, up 68.3 percent year-on-year.
