Seoul, South Korea-headquartered casino operator Grand Korea Leisure has reported a decline of nearly 4 per cent in its aggregated gross gaming revenues (GGRs) for the month of January this year.

According to available stats, Grand Korea’s aggregated GGRs dropped slightly more than 3.6 per cent month-on-month to settle at around $8.1 million in January 2022. In December 2021, the company’s combined gaming receipts totaled at $8.4 million, nearly 147.7 per cent higher than the previous month’s tally in spite of the government’s decision to introduce new measures to help fight further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The operator released the results just a few days after the country’s Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism revealed that the country’s sixteen foreigner-only gaming properties in South Korea suffered saw their aggregated GGRs for the whole of 2021 coming down by 31.9 per cent year-on-year to approximately $339.2 million.

However, Kangwon Land Casino venue bucked the trend to enjoy a jump of nearly 75 per cent in its revenues. According to released stats, Kangwon Land Casino (the country’s only gambling-friendly property where locals are permitted to gamble alongside tourists) saw its revenues jumping 74.7 per cent year-on-year to nearly $645.6 million.

Grand Korea Leisure Co. Ltd. is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) that is affiliated to South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism. Individually, the operator’s table games revenue in January slipped 7.5 per cent month-on-month to around $6.8 million.

However, this decline was partially offset by an 18 per cent increase in the company’s slot receipts, which were reported at $1.3 million.

Established in 2004, Grand Korea Leisure Co. Ltd. operates a trio of Seven Luck-branded casinos located inside the country’s Intercontinental Seoul Coex Hotel, Lotte Hotel Busan and Millennium Hilton Seoul Hotel. Late last year, the operator inked a deal that will see its foreigner-only operation inside Millennium Hilton Seoul Hotel relocated to the nearby Seoul Dragon City Hotelplex development due to its host’s looming demolition.

The aforementioned decline in South Korea’s casino industry’s GGRs is obviously the result of various restrictions imposed by the government to control Covid-19 pandemic. Last year’s aggregated GGRs tally from the country’s seventeen casinos had equated to a significant decline of 59.7 per cent when compared with pre-pandemic GGRs of nearly $2.4 billion earned in 2019.