Grand Korea Leisure sales up 6.6% for January

Looking at all three Grand Korea Leisure venues combined, January has proved to be nearly identical to December in terms of total net sales. 

The first month has yielded KRW 36.6bn ($25.2m) compared to December’s KRW 36.3bn, meaning sales are up by less than 1%.  

Notably, December’s revenue has been topped, despite total drop having decreased by just over 7%. 

Compared to last January, both of these figures have made an improvement, with sales up around KRW 2.3bn and drop up roughly KRW 39bn. 

The operator’s Gangnam Casino and Dragon City venue – both in Seoul – have swapped places in the rankings since December, with the Gangnam property proving to be the company’s most lucrative operation in 2026 so far. 

Busan Lotte Casino has remained in third place for January, with KRW 6bn in sales compared to Dragon City’s KRW 13.7bn and Gangnam’s KRW 16.9bn. 

Grand Korea Leisure operates its casinos on a foreigner-only basis, and alongside its raw financial data it has segmented its custom by nationality. 

A notable trend is that year-over-year, Gangnam Casino has seen a significant uptick in the amount of VIP custom from China.  

In January 2025, the casino recorded a KRW 26bn drop from Chinese VIP clients, while this year that figure jumped up to KRW 40.7bn. 

The change is all the more stark considering that in the same property, Japanese VIP custom decreased slightly from KRW 45.5bn to KRW 44.6bn. 

This pattern is reflected in the Dragon City property, though with Chinese VIP custom making a less dramatic uptick. 

Visitor levels are up across the board with a 19% yearly increase in foot traffic across all venues. 

The January figure for visitation is fairly consistent, however, when compared to December, with a nominal decrease in visitor numbers of around 0.2%. 

Growth is a common theme across Korean land-based operations, with fairly consistent improvements made year-over-year at all the foreigner-only casinos across the country – while the movement is in one direction, it’s the rate of acceleration that will determine who comes out on top.