South Korea’s foreigners-only casino operator Paradise Co. Ltd. is back in the game.
In a filing to the Korea Exchange, Paradise said its casino sales for November totaled KRW53.91 billion (USD46.1 million), a 7.2 percent increase compared to the KRW50.30 billion it achieved in the prior year period.
The November casino sales, however, are a 0.3 percent decline compared to October.
Contributing to the year-on-year improvement is the 10.2 percent increase in table game sales in November, reaching KRW51.38 billion. Meanwhile, machine game sales fell 30.9 percent to an estimated KRW2.54 billion last month.
Paradise Co. operates four foreigners-only casinos: Walkerhill in Seoul, Incheon Casino at Incheon, Jeju Grand on Jeju Island, and Busan Casino in the port city of Busan.
The casino operator said its casino sales in the 11 months to November 30 grew 6.1 percent year-on-year, to reach KRW560.57 billion. For the first time in 11 months, table game sales rose 7.1 percent year-on-year, but machine game sales dropped by 8 percent.
Analysts are expecting the casino operator to report a “sharp earnings improvement” in the third quarter of the year after seeing losses in 2015. However, the South Korean casino operator said its profit reached KRW10.46 billion (USD9.2 million)—a 14.8 percent drop compared to the KRW12.26 billion the company posted in the same period in 2015. Meanwhile, the casino operator’s labor costs was pushed by the “early retirement” expense totaling KRW12.8 billion in the third quarter.
Paradise Co previously credited Chinese VIPs as a group with the largest contributor to the company’ Co’s soft drop. In the third quarter 2015, Chinese VIPs had contributed KRW586 billion of soft drop, while Japanese players contributed KRW268 billion.
Paradise is currently constructing Paradise City, a joint venture with Japan’s Sega Sammy Holdings that will be South Korea’s first new integrated resort when it opens in April 2017.
