South Korea seems to be picking up speed as the go-to destination for international gamblers. If the latest financial data coming out of the country’s only two foreigner-only resorts are an indication, things are looking up and South Korea is excelling in a region that has seen a lot of difficulty with its casinos this year.
Table game revenue jumped 35% year-on-year to reach just over $54 million. Machine games, however, weren’t as attractive last month as they were a year ago and revenue for the sector slipped 7% to $3.29 million.
From January to November of this year, Paradise has seen its casino revenue increase 23% over the same period in 2018. The company reports total revenue for the 11 months of $598.58 million, with table game revenue and machine revenue increasing 24.3% and 5.9%, respectively. Table drop during the period increased by 18.5% to $5.239 billion.
The latest jump follows a solid third quarter at Paradise’s operations, just as analysts had previously predicted. The company reported earlier that its revenue for July through September was 30.4% higher year-on-year, helping it to pick up profits of $28.63 million.
Grand Korea Leisure Co. Ltd (GKL), the government-run company that competes with Paradise for foreign gamblers in South Korea, reported that its sales had increased by 8.2% in November compared to a year earlier. Table games were the favorite target, just like with Paradise, and enjoyed an increase of 9.2% year-on-year to reach $33.73 million.
GKL’s November performance was also a 23.4% increase over what had been seen in October. However, despite the welcome gains, the company’s overall revenue for the first 11 months of the year is down 1.1% compared to the same period in 2018. The company, which operates two Seven Luck-branded casinos in Seoul and Busan, reports that overall revenue for the period came in at $369.51 million.
The state-run gambling venture may be experiencing a little difficulty this year, as has already been seen, but the overall numbers aren’t yet reasons to worry. Bolstered by a strong performance at Paradise, GKL will be able to play off that success and get some of the company’s overflow as South Korea continues to gain in the gambling race.