South Korea-listed casino operator Paradise Co. Ltd’s August revenue shrunk by 2% from the same period in 2018, the company said in a filing.
Revenue for last month was KRW51.6 billion ($46.3 million), compared to KRW52.6 billion ($47.2 million) in August 2017. It was also a 17.4% decrease from the previous month of July.
Revenue from January to August of 2018 was KRW410 billion ($368.2 million), 19.7% higher than last year’s revenue for the corresponding period. Of this, table revenue went up 19.9% to KRW381.6 billion ($342.8 million), while machine revenue went up 16.7% to KRW28.4 billion ($25.5 million).
Table drop amount, or the amount of cash exchanged for chips by customers at the table, was KRW3.7 trillion ($3.3 billion), a 13.4% increase from the same period last year. Table drop amount just for the month of August increased 6% year on year, to KRW501 billion ($450 million).
The figures were collated from operations in Walkerhill in Seoul, Jeju Grand in Jeju Island, Incheon Paradise City and Busan Casino.
The company had earlier reported a profit of KRW1.4 billion ($1.3 million) for the first half of the year. Although the second quarter saw a net loss of KRW1.7 billion ($1.5 million), this was offset by a first-quarter net profit of KRW3.1 billion ($2.8 million). Revenue for the first six months of the year grew 23.7%, to KRW296.3 billion ($266.1 million).
Paradise Co.’s operations have been partly affected by China’s decision to limit Chinese group tours to South Korea, due to the longtime U.S. ally’s allowing the U.S. to deploy a missile defense system in the country last year. Chinese tourists still accounted for 30.1% of visitors to South Korea for the first half, but this was 3.7% lower than the previous year. The reduced number of Chinese tourists has been partially offset by the influx of Japanese VIP players and visitors from other countries.
