In South Korea and local casino operator Paradise Company Limited has reportedly announced that its aggregated September gaming revenues fell by 53.6% year-on-year to just shy of $8 million.

According to a report from Inside Asian Gaming, the result for the Seoul-listed firm represented a decline of 84% when compared with the about $51.4 million racked up for August and came after South Korea instituted a new series of measures to help stop the spread of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The source detailed that the nation of 51.7 million people recorded up to 2,000 new daily infections during the week to Sunday although this rate has since halved as a direct result of a nationwide campaign to increase testing and vaccinations.

Visitation vacuum:

Paradise Company Limited is responsible for the giant Paradise City integrated casino resort near the port city of Incheon as well as smaller hotel-based operations in the communities of Jeju, Busan and Seoul. All of these have purportedly experienced a significant decrease in customer footfall while the firm’s sole property in the South Korean capital has been operating under a strict set of coronavirus-related quarantine restrictions that were recently extended by another two weeks to October 18.

Longer lag:

Although Paradise Company Limited shied away from specifically blaming coronavirus for its recent slump, it nevertheless reportedly noted that its aggregated September table drop had plummeted by 24.8% year-on-year and 44.4% month-on-month to hit approximately $85.6 million. The company then purportedly moreover disclosed that all of this saw its aggregated nine-month casino revenues tumble by 27.7% year-on-year to something in the region of $157.9 million.

Rival’s reversal:

Staying in South Korea and Inside Asian Gaming reported that fellow casino operator Grand Korea Leisure Company Limited bucked the downward trend seen by its larger rival after posting an increase of 7% month-on-month in aggregated September revenues to $7.8 million. This Seoul-headquartered company is responsible for a trio of Seven Luck-branded gambling enterprises located inside the Millennium Hilton Seoul, Intercontinental Seoul Coex and Lotte Hotel Busan properties with last month’s figure purportedly being relatively flat when compared with the same period in 2020.

Dwindling diversion:

Nevertheless, Grand Korea Leisure Company Limited, which is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization and that body’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism parent, reportedly experienced a slight month-on-month drop in aggregated September handle to around $58.9 million with the associated nine-month figure coming in 60.3% lower at roughly $425.7 million.

Contracting contributions:

The South Korean casino industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and last year saw its aggregated tax contribution nosedive by 82.4% on a comparative basis to a mere $70.7 million. The Kangwon Land Casino venue from the state-owned Kangwon Land Incorporated led the way as its $51.8 million tally accounted for just over 73% of all the taxes collected from the country’s collection of 17 gambling-friendly properties.