South Korea’s foreigner-only casino operators posted improved results in August with both Paradise Co and Grand Korea Leisure (GKL) announcing year-on-year increases this week.
Paradise Co, which runs the Paradise City integrated resort in Incheon plus Paradise Walker-hill in Seoul, Jeju Grand and Busan Casino, reported an impressive 36.1% year-on-year increase in casino revenue in August to KRW69.28 billion.
The uptick was due to both higher volume and better luck, with table drop rising 24.4% to KRW623.03 billion. Table game revenue for the month was up 39.1% to KRW65.94 billion while slot machine revenue fell 4.3% to KRW3.35 billion.
Meanwhile, GKL – a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization that operates two casinos in Seoul and one in Busan under its Seven Luck brand – saw a more modest 4.5% year-on-year increase in casino sales in August to KRW53.01 billion, although the figure represented a significant 28.9% improvement over July numbers.
GKL reported a 4.0% increase in table game sales for the month to KRW47.85 billion with EGM sales up 9.3% to KRW5.16 billion.
For the first eight months of 2019 combined, Paradise Co has seen a 21.1% increase in casino revenue to KRW494.45 billion while GKL’s casino sales are down 1.9% to KRW320.13 billion.