South Korea’s largest casino has extended its pandemic-related closure by another week, even as the country appears to have flattened its COVID-19 curve into a pancake.
On Wednesday, Kangwon Land announced that it was extending the shutdown of nearly all its operations by another week. The casino, the only one in South Korea in which local residents are allowed to gamble, now says it hopes to reopen on the morning of May 11.
Kangwon Land, which is located in a mountainous region around 200km north of Seoul, shut its operations on February 23 as South Korea tried to get a handle on its COVID-19 situation. Foreigners-only casino rivals Grand Korea Leisure (GKL) and Paradise Co Ltd quickly followed suit, but all four Paradise venues were back in business as of last week, while GKL has targeted a May 6 opening date.
Kangwon Land’s privileged status as a hub for local gamblers makes it a revenue powerhouse but is currently adding extra pressure to ensure its operations don’t worsen the country’s pandemic situation. But there are some hopeful signs that the company’s latest shutdown extension could be its last.
On Thursday, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported four new COVID-19 infections, all of which were individuals who arrived in the country already infected. This marked the first time since February that the KCDC has reported no new domestic infections.
Furthermore, the KCDC recently stated that previous reports of 292 previously infected individuals testing positive for COVID-19 post-recovery may have been due to faulty testing, in that the current tests can’t differentiate between dead and live virus.
Kangwon Land previously estimated that staying closed through April 20 would cost the company US$240m in lost revenue, so that sum will likely rise closer to $350m should the current May 11 reopening timeline hold.
Kangwon Land’s public image has taken a beating in recent years, but the company is using the current crisis to improve its reputation. Kangwon Land staff recently donated 110 ‘infection prevention kits’ to 95 kindergarten and elementary schools, and has allocated KRW2b ($1.65m) to furnish schools in seven cities with 3,000 digital tablets to ensure kids can still get an education despite the disruption to their school year.
