Jeju Dream Tower's casino drew a record number of visitors in September, yet casino revenue fell nearly 40% from the previous month. Customer traffic and betting volume both rose, but the table hold rate dropped sharply on a temporary basis. The hold rate is the share of customer wagers that a casino keeps as revenue.
Lotte Tour Development (032350.KS) said in a regulatory filing on the 1st that the Jeju Dream Tower integrated resort posted 43.4 billion won ($30.9 million) in September revenue from its casino and hotel operations on a separate basis. Net casino revenue came to 29.1 billion won, down 37.7% from 46.7 billion won a month earlier.
Casino visitors, by contrast, totaled 66,393, the highest monthly figure on record. The drop amount — the money customers exchanged for chips to play — reached 237.8 billion won, the second-highest level this year. The table hold rate stood at 10.8% in September, the lowest since December 2023 and roughly half the 20.0% average of the past 12 months.
Industry officials view the decline in the hold rate as temporary, noting that hold rates at casinos worldwide can swing widely over short periods. They said the September revenue drop is difficult to read as weakening demand, particularly because visitor numbers and the drop amount did not fall alongside it.
Third-quarter casino visitors hit a record 188,147, and the drop amount rose 17.4% from the previous quarter to 748.4 billion won. Because of September's lower hold rate, however, third-quarter casino revenue fell 13.4% from the prior quarter to 127.3 billion won. Hotel revenue reached 48.6 billion won, a quarterly record.
Combined third-quarter revenue from the casino and hotel came to 175.9 billion won. Cumulative revenue for the first nine months of the year was 525.3 billion won, up 15.9% from a year earlier.
"Our October occupancy rate is expected to climb to nearly 94% from 84.4% a year ago, and direct international flight routes are set to expand substantially from October onward," an official at Lotte Tour Development said. "With continued growth in customer traffic and a recovery in the hold rate, we expect record-level results in the fourth quarter."
