Kangwon To Drive S. Korea’s Casino Sales Growth In 2021: Government

Gambling revenue in the domestic casino market rose 13.3 percent year-on-year to 1.18 trillion won in 2021, up from 1.40 trillion won in 2020, according to data released on its website by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Tuesday.

However, the improvement was due to Kangwon Land (pictured), the only resort that can serve domestic customers.

Kangwon Land, the resort operator, saw its gambling sales rise 74.7 percent year-on-year to 775.5 billion won from 443.5 billion won in 2021, the data showed.

The ministry’s methodology used to measure these revenues differs from industry operators due to bad debt accounting, compensation allowances and fees.

Casino revenues at 16 foreign-only casinos in the country fell 32.3 percent in 2021 to 405 billion won from 597.8 billion won in 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The total number of visits to casinos in the country fell 11.8% year-on-year to 1,552,711 from 1,760,232 in 2020.

Paradise Co., Ltd., the foreign-only casino operator, reported that its gambling sales fell 25.5 percent year-on-year to 249.9 billion won from 335.5 billion won in 2021.

Gambling sales of Grand Korea Leisure Co., Ltd., which has another foreigner-only casino, fell 51.8% year-on-year to 89.6 billion won in 2021.

The total number of employees at casino businesses fell by 5.9% to 6,688 in 2021, down 417 from a year earlier. The number of employees at casino businesses in 2020 was 7,105.

Paradise Inc’s employees fell 164 to 1,817 by the end of 2021, compared with 1,981 in 2020.

For Landing Casino, Jeju Shinhwa World, run by Hong Kong-listed Landing International Development Co., had 256 employees by the end of the year, down 195 from 451 in 2020.

Concurrent with this year-over-year change, during 2021, the two companies conducted “voluntary retirement” training among casino employees, respectively, according to a South Korean news release and a Landing International release.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all casinos in South Korea faced capacity restrictions in 2021. Some casinos also faced a period of temporary suspension.

The ministry’s data also said that 112.4 billion won was valued at the amount the industry had to pay in the calendar year of 2021 for South Korea’s “Tourism Promotion and Development Fund.” This is a 15.1 percent increase from the previous year, up from 97.7 billion won in 2020.

Mandatory contributions to the fund will be levied across the casino industry, but the ministry’s data table shows that the actual payment date for 2021 will be “next year,” or 2023.

The ministry said those contributions were calculated as a percentage of the industry’s total gambling sales revenue.

 

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