South Korean foreigner-only gaming operator Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL) experienced an almost 500 percent quarterly rise in net income for the first quarter of this year as the number of Japan and China VIP punters increased.
In the first three months of 2024, GKL registered KRW10.2 billion ($7.4 million), an almost ten-fold increase from the KRW1.7 billion ($1.2 million) registered in the previous quarter. This still represented a 53 percent year-on-year drop from the same quarter last year.
GKL is a foreigner-only casino operator in South Korea, which is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization, itself affiliated with South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
In the first three months of 2024, GKL’s total sales amounted to nearly KRW97.9 billion ($71.4 million), an 8 percent increase from the previous three months, but a 10.3 percent year-on-year drop.
Group-wide sales stood at KRW97.94 billion ($71.4 million) in the three months to March 31st, a decrease of 10.3 percent year-on-year. Such sales were up only 8.0 percent sequentially, according to the Thursday filing.
Meanwhile casino net sales in the first quarter KRW93.7 billion ($68.3 million), down by 12.9 percent from a year ago, while casino drop in the period – the amount paid by customers to purchase gaming chips – has increased 21.5 percent year-on-year to KRW916 billion ($668.1 million).
Most visitors to GKL’s properties were Chinese, with 101,000 visits from the country reported or 47.6 percent of the 212,302 aggregate for the quarter, while 63,000 visitors hailed from Japan, plus 48,000 visitors from other locations.
The group also indicated that its first-quarter “marketing activities cost” increased 26.6 percent year-on-year, to KRW15.1 billion ($11 million), something it said helped to increase the tally of VIP customers from overseas countries, including Japan and China.
About 84.5 percent of GKL’s property visitors were mass market players, with the remaining being VIP players.
