South Korean gaming operator Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL) posted a year-on-year increase in casino sales for August, the firm announced on Tuesday. The company reported casino sales of KRW53.01 billion (US$43.8 million) for that month, up 4.5 percent from the prior-year period.
Judged month-on-month, August casino sales rose by 28.9 percent compared to July.
The year-on-year increase in casino sales was due to a 4.0-percent growth in table game sales during the month of August, to nearly KRW47.85 billion. Machine game sales recorded an increase of 9.3 percent year-on-year, to approximately KRW5.16 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.
The company said casino sales for the first eight months of 2019 fell by 1.9 percent year-on-year, to approximately KRW320.13 billion.
Table game sales for the period were down 2.8 percent to about KRW280.38 billion, while machine game sales grew by 5.1 percent to KRW39.74 billion.
Table drop – the amount of cash exchanged for chips at the firm’s gaming tables – was about KRW2.97 trillion in the first eight months of 2019, up 26.7 percent compared to the prior-year period.
GKL said last month that its second-quarter net profit fell to just over KRW20.05 billion, a 26.2-percent decline compared to a year earlier.
