Kangwon Land, the only casino in South Korea where locals are permitted to gamble, has suspended casino operations for at least the next two days after 17 employees tested positive to COVID-19.
According to a notice posted on the company’s website, Kangwon Land will be closed from 10am on Monday 16 August until 6am on Wednesday 18 August for deep cleaning and to ensure all impacted staff are quarantined. Operations at the resort’s water park and food and beverage outlets had already been suspended on Friday.
The closure of Kangwon Land’s casino comes after the company launched mass COVID-19 testing of around 1,300 employees late last week, with 10 water park interns and seven full-time staff returning positive results. The process is now underway to identify the movements of those employees and anyone they may have come into contact with.
This is the fourth time Kangwon Land has been forced to close its doors since the start of the pandemic, most recently for more than two months from 8 December 2020 to 15 February 2021.
The company had only last week reported a return to profit in 2Q21 due to easing COVID-19 restrictions and “overwhelming demand”.
JP Morgan analysts said in a note that between 8,000 and 9,000 players have been queuing up virtually to enter the casino every day via its lottery system, of which only around 3,000 are admitted.
