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The first-quarter net loss at Kangwon Land Inc, the operator of Kangwon Land (pictured), the only casino resort in South Korea permitted to offer casino gambling to locals, narrowed year-on-year, to KRW40.9 billion (US$36.6 million), compared to a net loss of KRW156.1 billion a year earlier. The result was on sales that more than halved from the prior-year period.
The latest quarterly net loss was however up on the fourth-quarter net loss of KRW33.3 billion.
Kangwon Land’s casino, in a remote upland area outside the capital Seoul, had been closed for the beginning of the first quarter. It was shuttered on December 8 last year, as a Covid-19 countermeasure, only reopening on February 15.
Gambling cash turnover in South Korea’s casino market for full-year 2020 fell by 64.5 percent from the prior-year period, according to data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, issued through its official website on Tuesday.
The fall coincided with a 71.3 percent decline year-on-year in the aggregate of visits to the properties: i.e., foreigner-only venues and the Kangwon Land resort, the only casino complex in the nation that is permitted to offer bets to locals.
The deterioration in attendance occurred at a time when the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was felt on inbound tourism to South Korea and on the country’s casino operations, including capacity limitations and in some cases periods of temporary closure as a Covid-19 countermeasure.
A former senior South Korean government official is to assume the chief executive role at casino resort promoter Kangwon Land Inc starting on April 8, according to a Tuesday filing by the firm lodged with the Korea Exchange.
According to the filing, Lee Sam-Geol is replacing Moon Tae-Gon at the operator of South Korea’s only casino for locals.
Mr Lee was a vice minister at South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety from 2011 to 2013. Prior to that role, he had been the deputy governor of North Gyeongsang province from 2008 to 2011.
Mr Lee’s appointment term at his new role is for three years, the filing noted.
South Korean casinos log big losses in 2020 on pandemic fallout
Posted : 2021-04-05 10:25
Updated : 2021-04-05 11:18
Visitors to Kangwon Land Casino in Jeongseon County, Gangwon Province, await as a dealer hands out cards. Korea Times file
Casino operators in South Korea chalked up huge losses in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic sent the number of visitors plunging, data showed Monday.
State-run casino operator Kangwon Land Inc. registered an operating loss of 431.6 billion won ($382 million) last year, a sharp turnaround from an operating profit of 501.2 billion won a year earlier.
Kangwon Land, the country s only casino open to locals, is located in Jeongseon, some 200 kilometers east of Seoul.