South Korea’s Paradise Co Ltd announced its May casino sales, reportedly falling by 51%, earning the company KRW29.80 billion ($24.5 million), compared to KRW61.08 billion from the same period in 2019.

The group stated the sales from table games in May were close to KRW27.32 billion, a 52% drop from the KRW57.41 billion the casinos earned the previous year. Gaming machine sales brought in KRW2.48 billion, 32% lower than KRW3.68 billion in 2019.

Yet sales see the improvement compared to April when the majority of casinos had to be closed for 19 days to stop the spread of the COVID-19. In April, combined sales from the four Paradise casinos (Walkerhill in Seoul, Jeju Grand on Jeju Island, Busan Casino in Busan, and Paradise City in Incheon) brought in only KRW7.94 billion, almost an 86% dip compared to KRW57.13 billion in April 2019.

Accumulated sales for the casinos are also down by 31%, earning KRW192.06 billion for the first five months of 2020, whereas the same period in 2019 earned the company KRW279.61 billion. There were dips in aggregate table sales and accumulated gaming machine sales, bringing in KRW179.67 billion and KRW12.38 billion respectively.

The drop can be attributed to the suspended operations when casinos were closed in mid-March, and only fully re-opened on 20 April.