S. Korean casino op GKL posts strong May performance

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

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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”.

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