South Korea: casinos report turnover of US$409.1m for H1
South Korea’s casinos have reported turnover of KRW480.45bn (US$409.1m) for the first half of the year.
South Korea.- The Korea Casino Association (KCA) has reported that gambling turnover for the first half of the year was KRW480.45bn (US$409.1m), compared to KRW1.04tn in 2020.
In an interview with GGRAsia, it also revealed that 619,221 people gave visited South Korean casinos in the year to date, compared to 1.76m in 2020 and 6.13m in in 2019.
South Korea’s casino industry has experienced a major impact due the Covid-19 pandemic as 16 of the country’s 17 casinos are foreigner-only venues. Venues have been required to reduce operational capabilities and some have closed for periods.
According to data from the Korea Casino Association, Kangwon Land Inc., the only casino in South Korea that is open to locals, had casino sales of KRW302.17bn in the first half of the year. It welcomed 286,611 tourists.
In 202,0 the casino operator reported sales for KRW443.55bn and registered a tally of 599,265 visitors.
In the first half of this year, the total gaming sales of the 16 foreign-only casinos in South Korea came to KRW178.29bn while the full-year sales in 2020 were KRW597.8bn.
In the first half of 2021, the total number of visits to foreigner-only casinos was 332,610. For the whole year of 2020, the total was 1,157,698 and in 2019, the number of visits to these 16 casinos reached 3,233,761.
South Korea gaming tax revenue down 82.4% in 2020
South Korean authorities have reported that the collection of gaming taxes declined 82.4 per cent year-on-year in 2020 to KRW81.8bn (US$70.5m).
Tax revenue from Kangwon Land Inc plummeted 83.3 per cent from KRW357.8bn to KRW59.9bn in 2020. However, that figure was twice as much as South Korea’s 16 foreigner-only casinos combined. Kangwon Land accounted for 14.8 per cent of the country’s 2020 gambling tax revenue.
Gaming tax revenue from the rest of the casinos declined 79.7 per cent to KRW21.9bn. South Korean casinos also need to make contributions to a number of funds. In 2020, such donations totalled KRW322.6m.
Kangwon Land alone contributed KRW268.7bn in fund donations during 2020, down 8.2 per cent year-on-year, while the contribution from foreign-only casinos was KRW53.9m, a decrease of 60.7 per cent.
South Korea’s overall tax revenue from gaming in 2020 was KRW404bn, a drop of 82.9 per cent when compared to KRW2.36tn in 2019.
