South Korean casino operator Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL) reported a slight decline in sales in September. The company last week reported casino sales of approximately KRW42.42 billion (US$37.5 million) for that month, down 11.1 percent from the prior-year period.
Judged month-on-month, September casino sales fell by 16.4 percent compared to August.
The year-on-year decline in casino sales was driven by an 11.7 percent decrease in table game sales during the month of September, to nearly KRW37.46 billion. Machine game sales declined by 6.1 percent year-on-year to about KRW4.96 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 nine months of 2018 grew by 0.2 percent year-on-year, to approximately KRW368.7 billion.
Table game sales for the January to September period rose by 2.6 percent from the prior-year period to about KRW325.9 billion. Machine game sales however declined 15.2 percent in the nine months to September 30, to nearly KRW42.79 billion.
