South Korea's foreign-only casino operator Grand Korea Leisure Inc. (GKL) posted a net profit of 14.72 billion won ($12.1 million) in the first quarter, up 68.3 percent from 8.74 billion won a year earlier.
GKL's first-quarter sales edged above 111.5 billion won, up 2.1 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a Friday filing with the Korea Exchange. The increase came as part of efforts to curb the further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, even as game operations ground to a halt at the end of March.
The company reported operating profit of 26.92 billion won for the three months ended March 31, up 58.5% from a year earlier.
GKL is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Korea. The casino operator operates three foreigner-only casinos in Korea under the Seven Luck brand, two in the capital city of Seoul and one in the southern port city of Busan.
Casino revenue at GKL-run properties fell 72.0% year-over-year in March alone, according to the April release. GKL's cumulative casino revenue rose 1.8% to W102.3 billion in the first quarter of 2020.
GKL temporarily suspended its casino sites for an initial two weeks on March 24 in line with the country's efforts to curb the further spread of the coronavirus. Those closures were extended twice, and game operations resumed on May 6 after a 43-day casino shutdown.
The reopening coincides with a move to ease some of the so-called social distancing measures in place in South Korea from May 6 in early March. The decision to relax the rules came amid a slowdown in the number of new COVID-19 cases, the Association of Korean News Agency reported.
https://bsc.news/post/2024-best-casinosite-evolution-major-baccaratsite-top15
