Paradise Co Ltd.’s 2020 Financial Year Was a Bust: A 57.2% Drop in Annual Revenues Reported

Article by : Helen Jan 19, 2021

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Paradise Co has recently dropped their latest financial performance stats, and they are not looking great for the South Korean casino operator. December 2020 was the ninth month in a row that the company saw a year-on-year drop in rolling chip turnover of more than 99%. This is not surprising, considering the Paradise Co casinos, like all other South Korean ones (except Kangwon Land), can welcome only foreign guests in their venues.

The company’s December 2020 revenues amounted to KRW42.2 billion (roughly $38.4 million), which is 39.4% less in the same period in 2019. Yet, there is a silver lining here – the year-on-year drop isn’t as bad as it was during the six months before December when it varied between 71% and 85%.

As for the overall financial performance results for 2020, Paradise Co has had a rough year (well, like most other land-based casino operators). The company reported a 57.2% drop in revenues compared to 2019 – it managed to bring in KRW335.3 billion (roughly $305.1 million). The rolling chip turnover was also a lot lower than in the year before – 83.3% lower, to be precise.

While Walker Hill in Seoul and Paradise City in Incheon brought in most of the total revenue (KRW173.7 billion and KRW130 billion, or $158.1 million and $118.3 million, respectively) over the whole year, Busan and Jeju Grand weren’t doing as well at all. The two properties managed to get only KRW24.7 billion and KRW10 billion (approximately $22.4 million and $9.1 million), respectively.

There is hardly any mystery as to why the year 2020 left Paradise Co’s bottom line in the red – as the casino operator relies only on land-based properties for income, their multiple forced closures expectedly hit the company hard.

Paradise Co was forced to shut down its properties three times throughout the year. First, it was at the beginning of the pandemic, at the end of March. That closure lasted roughly a month. In September, several staff members at Paradise City got tested positive for COVID-19, which led to another one-week-long shutdown of this venue. Finally, the casino operator had to close the doors of Walker Hill in the middle of December.

After having to cease its activities on December 15, 2020, temporarily, Walker Hill reopened its doors only recently, on January 4 at 7 am. The reopening was put off twice as the harsher COVID-19-related restrictions in Seoul were extended. (Back at the beginning of December, the South Korean capital implemented the Level 2.5 measures to curb the disease’s spread.)

But even though Walker Hill is ready to welcome guests again, anyone who would like to spend some quality time at the venue will have to submit a negative COVID-19 test done in the seven days before a visit to the casino.

The new year still doesn’t look as promising for South Korean casinos as some might have hoped: the third wave of the pandemic keeps on raging in the country, with daily new cases remaining at around 500. The Level 2.5 measures in the Seoul Metropolitan Area and Level 2 ones nationwide were extended for two more weeks, until January 17, and then once more for the same period of time.

This, together with a new, more contagious coronavirus strain found in the UK and South Africa, the South Korean authorities imposed harsher entrance requirements for foreign visitors. Starting January 8 (or January 15 for seaport arrivals), all foreigners coming to South Korea will have to provide negative PCR test results issued within 48 hours before departure.