South Korea gaming revenue grows

South Korean foreigners-only casinos have improved their financial performance.

South Korea.- An improvement in the international tourism industry has boosted South Korea’s casino revenue as foreigners-only gaming salons have reported an increase in their numbers since the beginning of 2018. According to local press, the industry had gone through a rough time last year when the Chinese government set a “retaliation over a diplomatic row,” which reduced visits to casinos.

This morning the Korea Casino Association published the financial report on gaming activities showing that sales in January and February achieved US$191.56 million, which represents an increase of 15.9 per cent in comparison with the same period of 2017.

The results show an improvement compared to last year’s decline (due to a low number of international visits to South Korean foreigners-only casinos). “The local gambling industry took a hard fall in 2017 after China restricted its nationals from going on package tours to South Korea to protest the latter’s hosting of a U.S. missile defence system on its soil,” explained a local source.

Despite the downturn, Chinese group tours have been allowed again after Seoul and Beijing set aside the dispute in November last year.