S. Korea 2020 casino betting turnover down 58 pct to $535 mln

Gambling sales at foreign-only casinos in South Korea fell 58.7 percent in 2020 from the previous year, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Korea Casino Association (KCA), the trade body. Such gambling sales in 2020 were 595.4 billion won ($534.8 million), slightly below 1.45 trillion won in 2019.

According to the released data, the drop was in line with a 64% year-on-year drop in the total number of visits to the country's 16 foreign-only casinos. The association did not give an exact figure on the number of visits in 2020, but the industry-wide tally for 2019 stood at 3,233,761, according to data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism released in April 2020.

On Feb. 9, Korea's foreign-only casino operator Grand Korea Leisure Inc. (GKL) reported to the Korea Exchange a loss of nearly 64.33 billion won, compared to a profit of 72.4 billion won in 2019.

Paradise Inc., another foreign-only casino group, recently reported that gambling sales fell to 335.29 billion won in 2020, down 57.2% from 784.06 billion won a year earlier.

Kangwon Land, the operator of Kangwon Land Resort, the nation's only certified provider for casino games for Koreans, reported on Feb. 15 that its annual cumulative sales in 2020 fell by nearly 68.5 billion won from a year earlier.

The company posted a net loss of 275.86 billion won in 2020, compared with a profit of nearly 334.66 billion won in 2019, the company said in a filing with the Korea Exchange. The company's data is not included in the KCGA numbers.

Due to COVID-19 countermeasures, many Korean casinos have recently suspended their operations a few times since early 2020.

According to Korean news outlet Chosun Biz, the country's casino sector has complained to the national government about the latter's lack of support during the pandemic. Examples include the fact that central authorities have not granted waivers during the crisis, and the payment of "Tourism Promotion and Development Fund" fees from the industry due to a sharp drop in related inbound tourists.

Korean casinos paid about 300 billion won ($269.2 million) to the mandatory fund in 2019. The 2020 payment deadline for the fund is currently in a "deferred period," according to Chosun Biz.

BY: 슬롯머신