South Korea’s casino operators are extending their prolonged COVID-19 closures as the country struggles to bring its infection rate under control.

Last Friday, Kangwon Land, the only South Korean casino that allows local residents onto its gaming floor, announced that its plan to reopen to the public on Monday (7) wasn’t going to happen. Instead, the casino extended its closure until 6am on Monday, September 21.  

Kangwon Land (pictured) originally shut in late-February but reopened some VIP gambling facilities in May. However, plans to reopen its mass market gaming floor came to naught and the company was forced to shut all operations in mid-August for the second time.

In early May, Kangwon Land said the shutdown had already resulted in lost revenue equal to nearly one-fifth of its 2019 total. The company’s Q2 earnings report showed revenue falling 91.4% year-on-year, while the H1 bottom line showed a net loss of KRW201.6b (US$169.9m) versus a KRW153.4b profit in H1 2019. On Friday, the company said the latest shutdown would deprive it of a further KRW36.4b in lost revenue.