The Philippine casino sector produced gross gaming revenue (GGR) of just above PHP28.54 billion (US$555.2 million) in the three months to December 31, up by 21.7 percent from the third quarter. The figure excludes revenue from bingo operations and from electronic games parlours.
The latest data took the casino GGR tally industry-wide for full-year 2021 to nearly PHP96.54 billion, an increase of 12.4 percent from 2020.
That is according to data released this week by the country’s casino regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor).
The private-sector casino resorts in Manila’s Entertainment City produced about 83.4 percent of all industry GGR in the fourth quarter, i.e., PHP23.81 billion. The figure was up 23.0 percent quarter-on-quarter.
The cluster of commercial casinos in the Clark Freeport Zone, also on the country’s main island, Luzon, generated nearly PHP2.30 billion GGR in the fourth quarter, flat from the preceding three months.
At Pagcor-operated casinos, aggregate revenue in the three months to December 31 was PHP2.22 billion, up 32.1. percent from the preceding quarter.
Fourth-quarter table games GGR reached nearly PHP671.9 million, up 38.4 percent from the previous quarter. Pagcor-run slot GGR rose by 51.7 percent quarter-on-quarter, to PHP1.44billion.
The improvement in GGR performance in the final quarter of 2021 coincided with the easing of capacity restrictions in November for the country’s casino sector, including at Entertainment City.
Since Tuesday (March 1), Metro Manila has been placed under “alert level 1”, the lowest level of countermeasure against Covid-19, which allows business to operate at full capacity.
Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd confirmed on Tuesday that its City of Dreams Manila property, in the Philippine capital, was now operating at “100 percent capacity”.
