GGRAsia – S. Korean casino op GKL posts strong May performance

S. Korean casino op GKL posts strong May performance

Jun 11, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Casino sales at South Korean casino operator Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL) soared in May. The company on Monday reported casino sales of approximately KRW40.59 billion (US$37.9 million) for that month, up 16.7 percent from the prior-year period.

Judged month-on-month, May casino sales rose 2.7 percent compared to April.

The year-on-year increase in casino sales was sustained by a 21.8 percent rise in table game sales during the month of May, to KRW35.58 billion. Machine game sales however declined by 10.3 percent year-on-year to approximately KRW5.0 billion, the firm said in a filing to the Korea Exchange.

GKL is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization, which in turn is affiliated to South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The casino operating entity 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.

GKL’s casino sales for the first five months of 2018 reached approximately KRW202.1 billion, a 3.6 percent increase from the prior-year period.

Table game sales for the January to May period rose by 6.5 percent year-on-year to about KRW177.7 billion. Machine game sales declined 13.7 percent in the first five months to nearly KRW24.36 billion.

The casino operator saw its first-quarter net income fall by 1 percent year-on-year to approximately KRW17.35 billion.

Brokerage JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd said in a May note that GKL’s first quarter gaming metrics had been “lacklustre”, as “VIP remained a drag … with weaknesses across all nationalities”.