GGRAsia – South Korea casino op GKL posts US$9mln profit in 3Q

South Korea casino op GKL posts US$9mln profit in 3Q

Nov 09, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL), an operator in South Korea of foreigner-only casinos, posted in the third quarter a 39.3 percent sequential increase in net profit attributable to the shareholders.

Such profit for the three months to September 30 was nearly KRW11.96 billion (US$9.1 million), compared to KRW8.58 billion in the second quarter. Measured year-on-year, third-quarter profit was up 140.6 percent.

For the first nine months of 2023, such profit was KRW42.14 billion, versus a net loss of KRW13.80 billion in the prior-year period, according to a Thursday filing to the Korea Exchange.

The firm did not give commentary on the reasons for the overall third quarter performance.

Grand Korea Leisure 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 group is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization, which in turn is affiliated to South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Third-quarter sales for Grand Korea Leisure were KRW96.59 billion, down 3.6 percent sequentially, but up 29.8 percent year-on-year.

A separate presentation issued by the firm, showed casino net sales for the July to September period stood at KRW305.9 billion, 78.3-percent higher compared to the prior-year period.

The total amount of casino drop – for table games and slot machine games combined – for the third quarter this year was KRW310.22 billion, up 5.8 percent sequentially, and 61.3-percent higher from a year earlier.

In the separate presentation published on Thursday, Grand Korea Leisure said the majority of its casino visitors were Chinese, accounting for 46.3 percent of all patrons, with Japanese customers a distant second, at 25.6 percent.

The company also said it planned to boost its efforts to attract more “overseas VIP casino customers” during the fourth quarter this year. That included strengthening its marketing activities in the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka, as well as expanding its marketing efforts in Greater China.

In October, Grand Korea Leisure launched a mobile application called “Sevenluck+”, which enables players to access gambling services via blockchain-based authorisation. The firm said major features of Sevenluck+ include player-identification verification and “table cashless” functions, to enable table and slot play without exchange of actual cash.