Grand Korea pushes Seoul, Busan casino closures to Feb 15

Feb 01, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd, an operator in South Korea of foreigner-only casinos, said on Monday its two Seoul venues and one Busan site will stay closed until 9am local time, on February 15.

The Seoul venues have been temporarily suspended since November 24; and the Busan site since December 1, as Covid-19 countermeasures. An existing company-issued closure notice covering the three venues had been due to expire on Monday at 9am local time.

The firm also noted in its update filing to the Korea Exchange that – as a result of the further-extended closures – it was upping its estimated loss regarding the group’s casino net sales to about KRW32.58 billion (US$29.2 million), from KRW27.05 billion previously.

The new forecast for lost sales was – as with previous estimates – based on the firm’s average daily net sales from July to September.

The Grand Korea Leisure sites staying shuttered until February 15 are Gangnam COEX, and Gangbuk Hilton (pictured in a file photo) in Seoul, operated under the Seven Luck brand; and Busan Lotte in the southern port city of Busan.

The company said in Monday’s filing that the reason for the venues staying shut was because of “Covid-19 -related social-distancing to maintain the Level-2.5” protocols in the capital, and “Level-2” protocols in the “non-metropolitan area” of Busan.

Grand Korea Leisure is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization, which in turn is affiliated to South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

As of 12am on February 1, South Korea had recorded 303 new cases of Covid-19 and five more deaths in 24 hours, taking the national total of cases to 78,508, including an aggregate 1,425 deaths. That is according to data on the dedicated website of the nation’s Ministry of Health and Welfare.

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