Paradise Co reopens 3 casinos after weeks of safety pause

Apr 20, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Paradise Co Ltd, an operator of foreigner-only casinos in South Korea, has confirmed reopening the remaining three of its four gaming venues in that nation starting at 6am on Monday (April 20) following a near one-month pause amid the global threat of a novel coronavirus and its associated infection Covid-19.

But also on Monday another foreigner-only casino operator, Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd – an affiliate of the Korea Tourism Organization, South Korea’s official tourism agency – announced an extension until 6am on May 6 of its temporary closure of that group’s three gaming venues.

The reopened Paradise Co sites on Monday are: Paradise Casino (pictured) at the Paradise City resort in Incheon; Paradise Casino Walkerhill in Seoul; and Paradise Casino Busan in the port city Busan, the firm confirmed in an email to GGRAsia the same day in response to our enquiry. Paradise Co restarted gaming at its Paradise Casino Jeju Grand on the semi-autonomous holiday island of Jeju last week.

Operations at all four gaming venues had initially been suspended for two weeks from March 24, with shutdown extensions for a period after that.

Market rival Grand Korea Leisure runs three foreigner-only casinos in South Korea under the Seven Luck brand: two in Seoul; and one in Busan. In its latest filing, the firm said it was anticipating its lost casino sales would amount to KRW57.8 billion (US$47.4 million), as measured from March 24 onward. It was based on the group’s daily casino revenue in full-year 2019, it noted.

South Korea confirmed 13 new cases of the Covid-19 infection on Sunday, according to data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It brought the total number of infections in the nation up to that point to 10,674, including 1,006 cases classified as imported.

Kangwon Land Inc, the promoter of Kangwon Land, the only casino resort in South Korea where the country’s nationals are allowed to gamble, has had its gaming facility shuttered since February 23. On Friday it announced it had extended again the temporary closure of its gaming venue. It now says it will reopen at 6am on May 4.

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