S. Korean casino op GKL records US$9 million profit in Q3
Grand Korea Leisure Inc. (GKL), a foreign-only casino operator in South Korea, reported a 39.3 percent sequential increase in net profit attributable to shareholders in the third quarter.
Profit for the three months to Sept. 30 was nearly W11.96 billion (US$9.1 million), compared to W8.58 billion in the second quarter. Profit for the third quarter increased 140.6 percent year-on-year.
In the first nine months of 2023, the profit came in at 42.14 billion won, compared with a net loss of 13.8 billion won a year earlier, according to Thursday’s data submitted to the Korea Exchange.
The company did not comment on the reasons for its overall third-quarter results.
Grand Korea Leisure operates three foreigner-only casinos in Korea under the Seven Luck brand: two in the capital city of Seoul and one in the southern port city of Busan.
The group is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization and is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea.
Grand Korea Leisure’s third-quarter sales fell 3.6 percent sequentially to 96.59 billion won, but increased 29.8 percent year-on-year.
According to a separate announcement made by the company, casino net sales rose 78.3% year-on-year to KRW 305.9 billion in the July-September period.
The total decrease in casinos in the third quarter of this year, combined with table games and slot machine games, was 310.2 billion won, up 5.8% and 61.3% year-on-year.
In a separate presentation released Thursday, Grand Korea Leisure said the majority of casino visitors were Chinese, accounting for 46.3 percent of all customers, with Japanese customers coming in second with 25.6 percent.
The company also said it plans to step up efforts to attract more “overseas VIP casino customers” during the fourth quarter of this year. These included strengthening marketing activities in the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka, and expanding marketing efforts in Greater China.
In October, Grand Korea Leisure launched its mobile application “Seven Luck+,” which allows players to access gambling services through blockchain-based authorities. The company said that Seven Luck+’s main feature is a “table cashless” function that enables table and slot play without player identification and actual cash exchange.
BY: 에볼루션 바카라사이트