According to a report by GGRASIA, Kangwon Land closed the nation's only casino accessible to Koreans yesterday evening after the South Korean government raised its alert level for the outbreak to the highest “red” level.
The coronavirus strain, officially known as the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), was first reported in Wuhan, China in early December, but has since spread to distant countries, Italy, Australia and the United States, causing pneumonia-like symptoms such as high fever and cough, infecting more than 800 Koreans and killing seven locals so far, according to the report.
Kangwon Land Casino is located in rural Gangwon Province, about 93 miles from Seoul, and offers customers about 960 slots and 100 game tables. The property saw its net profit rise 12.7% year-on-year in 2019 at a cost of just over $274.8 million, which is likely to negatively affect future figures of about $9 million due to increased sales and temporary closures.
Inside Asian Gaming, citing financial services firm JP Morgan, explained that the temporary closure is very likely to cause Kangwon Land Casino to report a 4% year-over-year drop in first-quarter revenue to about $296 million. In addition, the brokerage agency hinted that South Korea could follow the lead of its Macau compatriots by temporarily shutting down more than 20 foreign-only casinos or reducing services. 온라인카지노사이트
“It is also doubtful whether foreigner-only casinos will follow suit, but it seems unlikely because the utilization rate is less than half that of Kangwon Land casinos anyway.”
