GGRAsia – S.Korea GKL sees casino sales fall 72pct in March

S.Korea GKL sees casino sales fall 72pct in March

Apr 07, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Casino revenue at Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL), a South Korean operator of foreigner-only casinos, fell 72.0 percent year-on-year in March, the company said in a Monday filing to the Korea Exchange. Such revenue was KRW11.68 billion (US$9.55 million), compared to KRW41.72 billion in March 2019.

Casino sales were down 73.4 percent sequentially, according to the firm’s latest filing.

GKL – a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization – 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.

On Monday, GKL reported its table game sales were down 73.5 percent year-on-year in March, while gaming machine sales fell 59.6 percent.

Sales from table games amounted to nearly KRW9.82 billion, from KRW37.10 billion, while sales from machine games totalled approximately KRW1.87 billion, from KRW4.62 billion in March 2019.

The company temporarily suspended on March 24 its casino sites for an initial two weeks, in line with the country’s effort at curbing the further spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. On Monday, GKL said in a separate filing it would extend the closure of its casinos until April 20.

GKL stated in that filing it anticipated lost casino sales would amount to KRW36.3 billion, as measured from the start of its gaming shutdowns on March 24. The estimate was based on the group’s daily casino revenue in full-year 2019, it added.

The firm said also it was considering implementing measures to minimise its losses during the period of business interruption. It did not detail what measures it would be introducing.

GKL’s accumulated casino sales for the first quarter of 2020 were KRW110.23 billion, an improvement of 1.8 percent, according to the latest filing.

Aggregate table games sales for the three months to March 31 this year were nearly KRW99.62billion, up 5.8 percent year-on-year. GKL’s machine game sales for the January to March periodwere down 24.7 percent year-on-year, at KRW10.61 billion.