Paradaisco casino sales fall 61 pct amid virus fears in South Korea

According to Thursday's report to the Korea Exchange, casino revenues at Paradise, a foreign-only casino operator in South Korea, fell 60.5 percent year-on-year in March. It earned nearly 19.73 billion won ($16.1 million) in revenue, compared to 49.94 billion won in March 2019.

The casino revenue tally for March fell 69.2% month-over-month, the operator said.

Paradise's gaming operations are operated at Walkerhill in Seoul, Jeju Grand in Jeju Island, Busan Casino in the southern port city of Busan, and Paradise City in Incheon (pictured).

Table sales fell 60.3% year-on-year to just under 18.6 billion won in March. Game console sales fell 63.0% year-on-year to 1.13 billion won.

Paradise said it would close its four casino sites for two weeks on March 24 following the country's efforts to curb the further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. While hotel operations remain open despite widespread restrictions on travel and tourism locally and globally, some of the company's non-gaming services, such as entertainment venues, have also been closed.

Paradise City's official website has since posted that several of the resort's non-gaming facilities, Wonderbox theme parks and Sea Mer Spa, will remain closed until May 1. Club Croma will remain closed until further notice.

South Korea has confirmed 89 new cases of COVID-19 infections as of Thursday, according to data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By that point, the country's total number of infections had risen to 9,976.

Paradise's cumulative casino revenue in the January-March period of 2020 was 155.23 billion won, down 3.8% year-over-year.

In the first quarter, cumulative table sales fell 2.4% year-on-year to 146.35 billion won. Game console sales totaled 8.88 billion won, down 22.4% from the first quarter of 2019.

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