New South Korean resort helps Mohegan set record Q2 revenue
Date: 2024-08-12 Author: Leon Pierce Categories: CASINO
For the April to June 2024 quarter, Mohegan Gaming recorded record quarterly revenue of $504 million (£395.5 million / €461.6 million), up 21.4% year-on-year. The previous record of $461.7 million was achieved in Q1 this year.
On August 8, Mohegan Gaming President and CEO Ray Pino highlighted several factors that contributed to this success, including “profitable growth in digital, the successful launch of Inspire… and the resilience of our flagship Mohegan Sun property.” He emphasized that these elements are key to the company’s current and future growth.
The $1.4 billion Mohegan Inspire resort opened in South Korea in November 2023 as a test site and has been a strong performer since its launch. It contributed $35.9 million to the company’s record-breaking $461.7 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31.
The resort officially opened in March 2024. CBRE analysts expect the Incheon resort to be cash flow positive by early 2027.
Vegas in South Korea
Inspire is strategically located, just an hour from downtown Seoul and ten minutes from Incheon International Airport. Attractions include:
The largest foreign-only casino in Korea, with 374 slot machines, 150 gaming tables, and a 176-seat ETG stadium.
- Three hotel towers with 1,275 rooms.
- A 15,000-seat Inspire Arena concert hall.
- Korea's largest convention center.
- Splash Bay water park.
- Aurora, a 150-meter-long digital entertainment street.
Dubbed Korea's first Las Vegas-class resort, Inspire is Mohegan Gaming's eighth property and its first outside North America. It joins 17 other casino resorts in Korea and is the first owned and operated by a foreign company.
Great Expectations
At the opening ceremony, South Korean Culture Minister Yoo In-cheon said Inspire "goes beyond simply adding a new casino to the country and represents a significant step in the development of Korean culture and tourism."
The resort is also seen as a response to the expected opening of Japan's first integrated resort in 2030. Tourism expert Lee Hoon told the Korea Times that Japan will be a bigger competitor for Korea than Singapore or Macau. “Korean integrated resorts will probably be less attractive to tourists,” he said.
South Korea aims to attract 20 million tourists this year, but it needs new attractions to reach that goal, experts say. The country ranked 15th in the World Economic Forum’s 2021 Travel & Tourism Development Index. It ranked 10th in cultural and leisure tourism, but 79th in natural tourism resources.
With MGM Osaka set to open in Japan six years away, Inspire has already set a new bar for Korea’s integrated resort industry. “When I look at our company, I’m confident in how our strategy is being executed,” Pino said.
In other news: Mohegan's adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $104.7 million, down 3.6% from the same period in 2023. Mohegan Digital, which operates gaming and sports betting operations in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Ontario, brought in $41.9 million, up 151.3% year over year.
Additionally, Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., posted net revenue of $235.7 million, up 2.2% year over year.
