Looking up in 2018
South Korea’s 16 foreigners-only casinos posted a decline in turnover for 2017 of 5.4 percent to KRW1.2 trillion (US$1.1 billion), according to figures from the National Gambling Control Commission.
The drop in gaming activity paralleled a 6.2 percent decrease in casino visitation to 2.2 million across the market, reported Inside Asian Gaming. The decline was precipitated by China’s ban on tourism to Korea in March 2017, an order prompted by South Korea’s establishment of a U.S.-built anti-missile system.
The nation’s largest casino operator, Paradise Co. Ltd., which opened Korea’s first integrated resort, Paradise City, in April 2017, posted a group-wide decline of 8.6 percent for the year to KRW551.9 billion (US$516.5 million), down from KRW603.8 billion (US$565 million) in 2016. State-owned Grand Korea Leisure fell 8.6 percent to KRW501.3 billion in 2017 with net profit plummeting by 29.6 percent year-on-year.
According to CalvinAyre.com, turnover in the jurisdiction “has been mixed for the past three years, making it hard to predict whether the trend will continue through 2018.” In 2015, the casinos saw a turnover decline of 9.7 percent, followed by 2.6 percent increase in 2016.
The website concluded that, based on turnover figures from Paradise and GKL in the first five months of 2018, “it is safe to say that South Korea’s foreigner-only casinos are on track for a positive result.”
