Korea’s leading foreigner-only casino operator Paradise Co says it continues to see high performance from its Japan VIP and mass gaming segments, but noted growing its VIP business has also resulted in increasing comp costs.
The update came with the company reporting Friday its 2Q24 financial results, which saw net profit of controlling interests fall 50.5% year-on-year and 43.9% quarter-on-quarter to KRW14.5 billion (US$10.6 million). Casino sales at its Seoul, Jeju and Busan properties for the quarter were down 16.7% year-on-year but up 9.5% sequentially to KRW112.0 billion (US$82 million).
At integrated resort Paradise City in Incheon, a joint venture with Sega Sammy Holdings of which Paradise holds a 55% stake, total sales grew 20.1% year-on-year to KRW131.4 billion (US$96.3 million) with casino sales up 24.7% to KRW102.5 billion (US$75.1 million). Property EBITDA fell 11.5% to KRW25.1 billion (US$18.4 million) and net profit by 59.3% to KRW6.25 billion (US$4.58 million).
Paradise Co said that the property continued to show strength in Japan and mass, with drop amount from Japan VIPs up 31.9% compared to pre-COVID levels and mass drop up 52.5%.
It also revealed that May “soft drop” – cash exchanged for chips by customers at the table – reached an all-time high in May.
Group-wide casino sales, Paradise said, were 12.8% higher than in 2Q19 although VIP is still in recovery mode at 78.2% of pre-COVID.