South Korean casino company Paradise Co.Ltd. is seeing good times and is making a steady growth in casino sector. Paradise Co.’s casino revenue saw a 19% year on year spike in September totalling KRW41.64 billion (USD37.35 million) as per the company filing to the Korea Exchange. The aggregate casino revenue for the operator for the nine months ending September 30 rose nearly 10.4% to reach KRW453.46 billion(USD406.9 million) the company declared this in a filing to the Korea Exchange.
In a recent commentary given by Union Gaming Securities Asia Ltd in a note on Wednesday on Paradise Co’s September numbers: “Chinese VIP volume grew 1 percent year-on-year in September, the first year-on-year growth for Chinese VIP in 24 months.
While judged on month to month, Paradise Co’s September casino revenue in aggregate was down approximately 28.2 percent compared to that of August. As per the company reports these figures were based on Paradise’s casino business division, mainly its properties at Walkerhill in the national capital city Seoul, Incheon Casino near Incheon International Airport, Jeju grand on the holiday island of Jeju and Busan Casino in the southern port city of Busan.
As per the reports gaming machine revenue in September was KRW3.01 billion, down 7.8 percent year on year but up approximately 23.5 percent month on month compared to August.
Paradise Co. is South Korea’s largest casino operators for foreigners and is increasing its gambling space to cater for a boom in Chinese visitors even as China cracks down on overseas casino marketing to its citizens.
As per Vice Chairman Lee Hyuk Byung in an interview Paradise will expand its floor space at three of its five foreigner only casinos including doubling the size of gaming areas at its casino on Jeju Island as Chinese gamblers who comprise more than two-thirds of its visitors pack its halls.
Union Gaming Securities Asia analyst Grant Govertsen said:
“While not exactly apples-to-apples given that Chinese VIP gamblers in Korea tend to be of much lower value than Chinese VIPs in Macau, we are encouraged that any established market is beginning to see growth in Chinese VIP.”
Govertsen further added:
“Sequential VIP gaming volume trends in South Korea are beginning to show signs of sequential stabilization with September VIP volume nearly equal to August VIP volume despite what would normally be a notable sequential decline due to seasonality; at the very least the sequential declines are getting much less worse.”
