Seven Luck Adds to Gangnam Casino
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Money has been flowing at South Korean casinos this year with the weak local currency bringing visitors in waves. Now, Grand Korea Leisure, the operator of the three Seven Luck Casinos in Seoul and Busan, is looking to exploit the boom by expanding its southern Seoul outlet by opening another floor to seat more card players and VIP guests.
The newly-opened third floor of Seven Luck Casino Gangnam, the result of an 8.3-billion-won (about $7.1 million) investment, has five VIP rooms and an open hall with 19 gaming tables over a 13,550-square-meter space.
Grand Korea Leisure also tweaked the first and second floors, including the introduction of a section for ``Texas Hold'em'' poker games on the first floor. The casino now has 74 tables and 112 slot machines.
Grand Korea Leisure has established itself as the country's top casino operator, edging out competitors such as Paradise Walkerhill in terms of revenue and number of visitors. The Gangnam branch has been the brightest of the company's three outlets, and is expected to provide more than half of the three casinos' 400-billion-won revenue projected for 2009, company officials said.
The company opened an academy to train both new and experienced dealers in June, and the first 71 enrollees will now be assigned to the Gangnam branch to handle the increased number of tables.
Grand Korea Leisure, which is entirely owned by the Korea Tourism Organization, is also planning to complete the sale of 49 percent of its shares in an initial public offering (IPO) next year, as part of the government's plans to ``advance'' state-owned enterprises.
Mirae Asset, which was picked as the manager of the IPO, is planning to sell 30 percent of the stake, estimated to be worth around 180 billion won, during November, with the remaining 19 percent to be made available next year.
``The IPO will stabilize the management of the casinos, and it will be important for us to be aggressive in our operating strategies and improve the company's competitiveness,'' Kwon Oh-nam, president and chief executive of Grand Korea Leisure, was quoted as saying.
Seven Luck Casino Gangnam, located near COEX, first opened in January of 2006 and generated about 74.4 billion won in revenue that year. Sales grew to 155.3 billion won in 2007 and 185.5 billion won in 2008. Grand Korea Leisure also has a casino at the Millennium Seoul Hilton hotel in downtown Seoul and the Lotte Hotel in Busan.