While casino operators around the world are scrambling to trim excess expenses and figure out how to avoid further revenue losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, one company is headed in the opposite direction. South Korea’s Grand Korea Leisure (GKL), a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and the operator of foreign-only casinos, recorded growth in its net income in the first quarter of the year, at the same time other gambling companies are seeing their numbers continue to slide. According to a filing by GKL with the Korea Exchange today, its net income exploded by more than 68% in the first quarter compared to the beginning of 2019.

$12.1 million was the magic number for the Q1 profits, substantially more than the $7.16 million the company saw a year earlier. The results are made better by the revelation that GKL’s sales only increased by 2.1% when comparing the two periods, reaching $9.43 million. Tacking on the fact that the company shut down its three Seven Luck casinos as of March 24, and the picture gets even better. Operating profit also increased, reaching $22.08 million in the quarter for a 58.5% jump. GKL has obviously figured out ways to reduce costs over the past year to improve its bottom line.

Two of the three Seven Luck casinos are in Seoul, South Korea, while the third is on the country’s southern coast in the city of Busan. The trio saw their combined revenue take a nosedive in March, when the take was 72% lower year-on-year. First-quarter casino sales for GKL took a hit because of it, but still managed to improve by 1.8% to close at $90.39 million.

The increase in performance is definitely going to help the company survive the COVID-19 debacle, and the improvement will most likely be wiped out by the end of this quarter. GKL missed out on revenue for the end of March and the entire month of April, and just now began opening its casino doors to the public. With a tendency of the general public to still be shy when it comes to venturing back out into the real world, and international travel still at lower levels, the odds on the Seven Luck casinos to attract patrons remain low.

It’s tough to talk about, but there are some silver linings to this pandemic. Less traffic on the road, the air is a bit cleaner, and Macau is moving away from a tourist tax. Macau Business reports the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has decided to drop the idea of a tourist tax, as plunging tourist visitor numbers have made it a mute issue.

“The SAR Government decided to bring an end to its consideration of the possibility of tourist tax imposition. Visitor arrivals have plunged in Macau in recent months, causing various degrees of impact on the tourism-related industries. It has become a priority at this stage for the SAR Government to bolster the recovery of the trade,” the MGTO announced.

Total visitors to the special administrative region have dropped by 69% year over year, to only 3.2 million for the year so far. This is far behind the pace the city would need to make up the 39.4 million arrivals it had in 2019.

The MGTO made mention that they had concluded their feasibility study, concluding that a tourist tax wouldn’t even be the “most effective” strategy to control visitor numbers. But current conditions have reversed their strategy entirely. The government will now be “striving to bolster recovery of the trade through different measures such as tax reduction and economic support,” and wished to avoid creating “any adverse effects upon the tourism industry,” MGTO stated.

Casino operator Penn National Gaming (PNG) lost over $600m in the first quarter of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic infected the company’s bottom line.

Figures released Thursday show PNG generated revenue of $1.11b in the three months ending March 31, a 9.4% decline from the same period last year. Not bad, considering that PNG was forced to shut all 41 of its gaming venues in mid-March as the pandemic spread.

But earnings fell by half to $154.8m, and $616.1m in impairment losses – “primarily related to gaming licenses, trade names and goodwill” – resulted in PNG booking a net loss of $608.6m for the quarter. Despite the carnage, investors were positively giddy, pushing the company’s shares up 15.4% by the close of Thursday’s trading.

All of PNG’s regional segments reported revenue declines, with the dominant Northeast segment faring best, falling only 5.4% to $520.7m. Declines were much sharper in the Midwest, ($228.1m, -15.9%), South ($223.3, -23.5%) and West ($126.6m, -20%).

Online gambling participation in Finland rose nearly 13 percentage points over the past four years without any corresponding rise in overall problem gambling rates.

A new study released last month by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) queried nearly 4k residents on their gambling activity during 2019, a follow-up to similar studies conducted every four years since 2007. A second report later this year will address public attitudes and opinions toward gambling.

The gambling prevalence rates was 78.4% in 2019, down from 80% in 2015. The number of Finns who gambled daily or several times per week fell 1.9 points to 7%, while those who gambled once a week was down nearly three points to 22.2%.

Of Finns who gambled last year, those who did so with the state-run Veikkaus monopoly fell 1.5 points to 77.9%, while the number who patronized an internationally licensed online alternative rose 2.1 points to 5.4%. All told, of Finns who gambled last year, the number who did so online was 36.3%, up 12.7 points from 2015.

Nevada’s casinos are no closer to reopening their doors, despite the governor accelerating the state’s post-pandemic economic revival.

On Thursday, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced that some state businesses would be allowed to reopen on Saturday, one week ahead of schedule. Sisolak said the advanced timeline was the result of “a downward trend of COVID-19 cases.”

Among the businesses that will be allowed to reopen are barbershops, nail salons and other retail operations that can ensure proper social distancing rules. Restaurants can operate at 50% capacity with tables six feet apart, but their bars must remain closed, as will bars that don’t serve food, along with gyms, spas, bowling alleys and – yes – casinos.

Sisolak said last week that casinos “will not be opening at the start of Phase One,” a process that is expected to last two-to-three weeks with a likely expiration date of May 30. Sisolak said Thursday that he didn’t have a “specific metric” for launching Phase Two, saying it would depend on “benchmarks along the way.”

Social gaming outfit Zynga reported record revenue in the first quarter of 2020 thanks to pandemic isolation but the company still managed to book a nine-figure net loss.

This week, Zynga reported record revenue of nearly $404m in the three months ending March 31, a 52% gain over the same period last year. But rising costs, including significant earnout payments associated with its numerous acquisitions, resulted in a net loss of nearly $104m, which is actually an improvement over Q1 2019’s $128.8m loss.

Gaming revenue shot up 72% to $344.3m thanks to some new titles and bored players stuck at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But advertising revenue dipped nearly 9% to $59.4m as companies reined in their marketing due to the pandemic.

Zynga said its primary gaming growth engines were its Empire & Puzzles, Merge Magic! and Merge Dragons! titles, as well as the new Game of Thrones: Slots Casino. The company said its Social Slots portfolio achieved record revenue and bookings in Q1, with Hit It Rich! Slots given a shoutout for overperforming.