S. Korea’s GKL November casino sales up 8pct

Dec 03, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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South Korean casino operator Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL) posted strong sales in November, the firm announced on Monday. The company reported casino sales of approximately KRW45.0 billion (US$38.0 million) for last month, up 8.2 percent from the prior-year period.

Judged month-on-month, November casino sales rose 23.4 percent compared to October.

The year-on-year increase in casino sales was sustained by a 9.2-percent rise in table game sales during the month of November, to just above KRW40.31 billion. Machine game sales for the period were flat compared to November 2018, at about KRW4.69 billion, the firm said in a filing to the Korea Exchange.

No commentary on the reasons for revenue fluctuations is given in the company’s monthly updates.

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.

The company said casino sales for the first 11 months of 2019 however fell slightly by 1.1 percent year-on-year, to approximately KRW441.58 billion.

Table game sales for the January to November period declined by 1.6 percent from the prior-year period to nearly KRW388.02 billion. Machine game sales rose by 2.7 percent in the 11 months to November 30, to about KRW53.56 billion.

The casino operator saw its third-quarter net income decline by 4.1 percent year-on-year to approximately KRW25.29 billion. That was despite a 2.3-percent increase in sales for the period, according to a November filing.

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