GGRAsia – S. Korea’s GKL June casino sales up, 1H results down

S. Korea’s GKL June casino sales up, 1H results down

Jul 09, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

South Korean gaming operator Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL) says its casino sales were up 6.6 percent year-on-year in June, to nearly KRW38.96 billion (US$33 million). June’s performance however was not enough to prevent a decline in sales in the first half of 2019.

Judged month-on-month, June casino sales were down 1.2 percent compared to May, the firm announced on a Monday filing.

The year-on-year increase in casino sales was due to a 5.0-percent growth in table game sales during the month of June, to nearly KRW33.67 billion. Machine game sales recorded an increase of 17.5 percent year-on-year, to approximately KRW5.29 billion, the firm said in its filing to the Korea Exchange.

The company said casino sales for the first half of 2019 fell by 5.3 percent year-on-year, to approximately KRW226 billion.

Table game sales for the first six months this year were down 6.5 percent to about KRW196.17 billion, while machine game sales grew by 3.3 percent to nearly KRW29.83 billion.

Table drop – the amount of cash exchanged for chips by customers at the table – for the first six months of 2019 rose by 28.9 percent year-on-year, to about KRW2.22 trillion.

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.