Grand Korea Casinos in Seoul and Busan to Remain Closed Until February 1

Article by : Helen Feb 1, 2021

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Grand Korea Leisure was planning to shut down its venues for just a couple of weeks – Gangnam COEX and Gangbuk Hilton were initially closed on November 24, while Busan Lotte followed suit on December 1. Yet, the casino operator is down on luck – it had to extend the forced closures once more, with the new scheduled opening date set to February 1.

Even if the venues open up as planned, the closures will have lasted around two months. This is bound to leave a lasting effect on the casino operator’s bottom line. Grand Korea Leisure itself estimates the losses will amount to 27.05 billion Korean won (roughly $24.49 million), based on average net sales of the operator from July to September 2020.

While the actual effect of these closures on the company’s financial performance is yet to be seen, Grand Korea can’t boast weathering the storm well enough so far. In 3Q2020 (latest available data), the casino operator reported net losses of 22.8 billion Korean won (roughly $20.68 million), a severe downfall from 25.3 billion Korean won ($22.95 million) in net profits in 3Q2019.

Grand Korea Leisure had already had to postpone reopening its venues three times: on December 7, December 28, and January 4. The initial two-week closure was estimated to cost the casino operator 5.1 billion Korean won ($4.63 million), which had to be reviewed and upped first to 5.5 billion Korean won ($4.99 million) and then to 21.5 billion Korean won ($19.5 million) before the latest estimate of 27.05 billion Korean won.

Paradise Co also shut down its foreign-only Walker Hill Casino in Seoul on December 15 and had to extend its closure until January 4, with no further announcements on postponing the venue’s reopening. Kangwon Land, South Korea’s only exception to the foreign-only rule, also has its doors closed to players for now. It shut down on December 29, with the scheduled reopening set to February 1 as well.

Casinos started closing one after another once the South Korean authorities toughened up the COVID-19 measures to Level 2 in Seoul metropole on November 24 and introduced the Level 1.5 restrictions nationwide on November 29. On December 1, the South Korean government raised the measures to Level 2 across the country. Seoul entered Level 2.5, the second harshest level out of five in South Korea’s coronavirus mitigation strategy.

The nationwide Level 2 restrictions (Level 2.5 in Seoul metropolitan area) were initially planned to last until January 17, yet the pandemic didn’t let the government ease them down.

They were extended until January 31, and there is no guarantee the situation will allow relaxing the restrictions once this deadline approaches. South Korea is currently battling the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 73 thousand confirmed cases so far. The daily new infection cases remained above 350 from January 14 to January 20, with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency recording 547 new cases on January 16.

South Korean officials said at the beginning of January that “a third wave of the novel coronavirus is being contained,” yet evidently not well enough for the restrictions to be relaxed just yet. There is a silver lining, however, – the daily new cases have already declined considerably (especially compared to the record-setting 1,241 newly infected on Christmas Day and 1,132 the following day).