Korean foreigner-only casino operator Grand Korea Leisure (GKL) saw group-wide sales plummet 80.2% in the three months to 30 June 2020, impacted by the temporary closure of its casinos and the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on international travel.
While GKL has shown some ongoing improvement in recent months, 2Q20 revenue took a major hit – falling to KRW23.26 billion (US$19.6 million) from KRW117.36 billion (US$98.9 million) over the same period in 2019. Accumulated sales for the year are down 40.5% to KRW134.77 billion (US$113.6 million).
The decline in sales pushed the company to a net loss attributable to shareholders of KRW23.56 billion (US$19.9 million) for the quarter compared with a profit of KRW20.05 billion (US$16.9 million) in 2Q19, with GKL now running at a KRW8.84 billion (US$7.5 million) loss for the first six months of the year.
GKL, which operates two casinos in Seoul and one in Busan under its Seven Luck brand, saw all properties closed throughout April before opening their doors again on 6 May.
The company last week reported a 65.5% year-on-year decline in casino sales to KRW14.19 billion (US$11.9 million) in July, although those numbers represented a 13.7% improvement on the KRW12.48 billion (US$10.4 million) in casino sales the company reported in June. It was also significantly higher than casino sales of KRW10.36 billion (US$8.7 million) in May.