The fear of MERS is fading awayIsis Casino sales improvement triggered

The monthly number of Paradise Inc. in South Korea, a foreign-only casino operator, fell 23.6 percent from last month to 317.2 billion won (US$31.7 million).

Table game sales fell from 45.4 billion won last year to 33.9 billion won during the same period this year, and game console sales rose nearly 1% to 3.3 billion won.

Union Gaming wrote in an AGB report, "As we have guessed, July appears to be a low number in terms of the size of the y/y reduction (-49% y/y) as well as the absolute level of gaming volume." Also fueled by the return of tourists to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) scare, game volumes in August fell 25% year-on-year, while September figures continued the trend to a 23%.

According to Union Gaming, the year-on-year trend in the Korean gaming market is expected to continue to decline and may be attributed to similar factors affecting the Macau market, but on the contrary, there has been a slight rebound in the pre-MERS level market, which has severely affected tourism and gaming trends.