Things continue to look up for South Korean casino company Paradise Co. Ltd.
Paradise Co’s casino revenue saw a 19% year-on-year spike in September, totaling KRW41.64 billion (USD37.35 million), the company said in a filing to the Korea Exchange. The operator’s aggregate casino revenue for the nine months ending September 30 also rose nearly 10.4% to reach KRW453.46 billion (USD406.9 million), the company said in a filing to the Korea Exchange.
But if compared on a month-to-month basis, Paradise Co’s aggregate casino revenue for September was 28.2 percent lower compared to August’s KRW57.98 billion.
Table games revenue pitched in KRW38.63 billion, a 21.7 percent increase year-on-year. Gaming machine revenue, on the other hand, fell 7.8 percent year-on-year to KRW3.01 billion. But table drop rose 4.7 percent year-on-year to reach KRW389.62 billion.
The figures were based on the casino operator’s business division, including its Walkerhill, Incheon Casino, Jeju Grand and Busan Casino properties.
The foreigners-only casino operator saw its Chinese VIP volume grow 1% year-on-year in September. Now, it might not seem like much, but that is the first growth seen for Chinese VIP in 24 months.
“While not exactly apples-to-apples given that Chinese VIP gamblers in Korea tend to be of much lower value than Chinese VIPs in Macau, we are encouraged that any established market is beginning to see growth in Chinese VIP,” said Union Gaming Securities Asia analyst Grant Govertsen.
Gross gaming revenue for the South Korean VIP market reached USD800 million in 2015, while Macau’s VIP market recorded USD15 billion in the same period.
“Sequential VIP gaming volume trends in South Korea are beginning to show signs of sequential stabilization with September VIP volume nearly equal to August VIP volume despite what would normally be a notable sequential decline due to seasonality; at the very least the sequential declines are getting much less worse,” Govertsen said.
