Kangwon flags US$67mln lost gaming, virus closure extended

Mar 09, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Kangwon Land, the only casino resort in South Korea where the country’s nationals are allowed to gamble, has decided to extend – for a third time – the temporary closure of its gaming venue. It now says it will reopen at 6am on March 16.

The original closure was described by the resort’s promoter, Kangwon Land Inc, as a precautionary measure related to an outbreak of Covid-19 infections in that country.

Non-gaming facilities will also be closed until then.

The casino’s operator Kangwon Land Inc, had originally announced a temporary closure of the casino from noon on February 23 until 6am on February 26, and then extended that until 6am on February 29, with a further extension until 6am on March 9.

The firm said in a Friday filing to the Korea Exchange – at the time it flagged the third extension to the closure – that it was anticipating its lost casino sales to amount to KRW80 billion (US$66.8 million) from the start of the casino closure on February 23. It added that non-gaming operation losses for March 2 until March 15 were expected to amount to an additional KRW6.7 billion.

South Korea recorded 367 new cases of coronavirus-related infection in 24 hours as of Sunday, bringing the nationwide total of confirmed infections to 7,134 as of that time, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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