Paradise Co June casino revenue down 81pct

Jul 03, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Paradise Co Ltd, an operator in South Korea of foreigner-only casinos, said in a Thursday filing that its June casino revenue fell 80.8 percent year-on-year. Such revenue was nearly KRW13.82 billion (US$11.5 million), compared to KRW71.87 billion in the same month in 2019.

Judged month-on-month, casino revenue was down 53.6 percent, said the company in its filing to the Korea Exchange.

Paradise Co’s gaming operations are at: Walkerhill in Seoul; Jeju Grand on Jeju Island; Busan Casino in the southern port city of Busan; and Paradise City (pictured), in Incheon, near the main international airport serving the country’s capital Seoul.

Gaming operations at the Paradise Co properties had been suspended on March 24 as part of measures in South Korea to control the spread of Covid-19 infection. The firm reopened its casino on Jeju island on April 13. It resumed operations at its remaining three gaming venues on the South Korean mainland on April 20.

On Thursday the group reported that for June, table games revenue was just above KRW12.12 billion, an 82.2 percent decline on the more than KRW68.0 billion in the prior-year reporting period.

Gaming machine sales for June amounted to nearly KRW1.70 billion, from just under KRW3.87 billion, a year-on-year dip of 56.2 percent.

Accumulated casino sales for the first half of 2020 were nearly KRW205.86 billion, down 41.4 percent from the prior-year period.

Aggregate table revenue for 2020 up to June 30 was KRW191.78 billion, a fall of 41.7 percent from a year earlier. Accumulated gaming machine revenue for the period was KRW14.08 billion, a deterioration of 37.7 percent in year-on-year terms.

It was announced earlier this week that some non-gaming venues at the Paradise City casino resort – including spaces that had closed initially due to Covid-19 and then reopened – were to be shuttered “temporarily” from Wednesday (July 1) “until further notice”, due to the latest pandemic-related developments in South Korea. The property’s promoter said the move was in order to “participate” in the national government’s “quarantine programme as well as to reduce and prevent Covid-19”.

As of Wednesday, South Korea had recorded an aggregate of 12,904 cases of Covid-19 infection and 282 deaths, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A total of 54 new cases had been recorded as of that day.

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