South Korean casino operator Paradise Co Ltd said its casino sales for September rose 4.3 percent year-on-year to KRW47.7 billion (US$44.4 million).
The year-on-year increase in September was mainly driven by a 3.8 percent growth in sales from table games, to approximately KRW44.9 billion, the firm said in a regulatory filling this week.
Sales from machine games jumped 12.2 percent, to KRW2.8 billion from KRW2.5 billion in September 2013.
Analysts at UBS AG said the increase in September was again driven by Chinese visitors, showing that South Korea has not been hurt by a slowdown in Macau. Mainland China is the main feeder market for casinos in both jurisdictions.
For the nine months ending September 30, Paradise Co’s casino sales reached KRW439.7 billion, up by 4.0 percent from a year earlier.
Sales generated by gaming machines in the nine-month period rose 9.7 percent year-on-year to nearly KRW24.1 billion. Sales from table games were KRW415.6 billion, a more modest rise of 3.6 percent year-on-year.
Table drop – the amount of cash exchanged for chips by customers at the table – rose by 18.7 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2014, to nearly KRW4.0 trillion. For September, drop volume rose by 9.5 percent year-on-year to KRW395.8 billion, the company said.
Paradise Co posted a near 36-percent drop in second quarter profit, despite a strong contribution to table drop by Chinese high rollers.
