Kangwon Land, operator of Korea’s only casino in which locals are allowed to gamble, booked a 9.8% year-on-year fall in revenue to KRW395.1 billion (US$354.8 million) in 3Q17, forcing net profit down 4.3% to KRW119 billion (US$106.9 million) for the period.
However, the results represented a sequential increase, with revenue up 2.1% from KRW387 billion and net profit up 7.8% from KRW110.4 billion in 2Q17.
Gaming revenue fell 10.2% year-on-year to KRW 376.7 billion, showing only a very slight 0.5% increase over second quarter results with year-on-year declines across all segments.
They included a 10.9% fall in mass table revenue to KRW170 billion, 4.6% decline in slot machine revenue to KRW149.8 billion and 9.2% fall in drop to KRW1.65 trillion.
Visitor numbers fell 6.1% to 814,000.
Kangwon Land has been recently embroiled in a major corruption scandal after admitting that the vast majority of its staff were hired through political and company connections.
In September the company admitted that from 2012 to 2013 it had hired 518 people of which 493 of them – around 95% – were appointed due to connections with various “influential people.”
It has also been operating below its table capacity to “adjust revenues lower amid regulatory scrutiny” according to analysts.