South Korea: GKL casino venue to be demolished after sale
The Millennium Hilton Seoul Hotel which hosted the GKL Seven Luck Casino will be replaced by an office building.
South Korea.- The Millenium Hilton Seoul Hotel, which hosted Grand Korea Leisure’s Seven Luck casino, is to be demolished following its sale.
The venue was sold to Aegis Asset Management, a domestic real estate fund manager, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourism.
Aegis plans to build an office building on the site, but it has not yet revealed more details. It is still unknown if the casino will be relocated.
Grand Korea Leisure (GKL) has recently reported a net loss of KRW37.43bn (US$33.4m) for the first quarter of 2021.
GKL revealed that sales in the first quarter dropped by 95.3 per cent year-on-year and 64.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
The casino operator suspended all of activities in November 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Seven Luck Casino Busan Lotte in Busan reopened in February, while the operator’s Seoul venues reopened in March.
In 2020, South Korean casinos received only 1,760,232 visits, down from 6,128,952 in 2019. Gambling cash turnover was down 64.5 per cent when compared to the previous year.
