Japanese gaming company Universal Entertainment Corp says preliminary figures show that its Okada Manila casino resort (pictured) in the Philippines recorded gross gaming revenue (GGR) of just over PHP2.64 billion (US$50.9 million) in May, down 6.7 percent from the prior-year period. Last month’s GGR however reflected a 6.5 percent rise from the just over PHP2.48 billion recorded this April.
A Philippine subsidiary of Universal Entertainment, called Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc, runs Okada Manila.
May’s result put the property’s accumulated GGR for the first five months of 2019 at slightly above PHP14.6 billion, up 49.6 percent from the prior-year period.
In a Wednesday filing about the May operating numbers for Okada Manila, Universal Entertainment did not give commentary regarding the year-on-year decline in monthly gaming revenue.
May GGR results for Okada Manila included VIP revenue of nearly PHP1.04 billion, down 37.7 percent compared to just over PHP1.66 billion in the prior-year period, and down 7.1 percent sequentially on the nearly PHP1.12 billion achieved in that segment in April.
May’s mass-market table GGR rose by 36.4 percent year-on-year however, to PHP780 million, and rose 14.9 percent from April’s PHP679 million.
Gaming machine revenue stood at PHP828 million in May, up 38.5 percent from May 2018’s PHP598 million. The May machine GGR tally was also up sequentially – by 20.2 percent compared to the PHP689 million in April this year.
Universal Entertainment said in Wednesday’s filing that Okada Manila’s adjusted segmental earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for May were PHP369 million. That was an increase of 126.4 percent compared with PHP163 million in the prior-year period and up 17.5 percent from PHP314 million in April.
Okada Manila posted US$522-million in casino GGR for full calendar year 2018 – against a background of general expansion in Philippine casino market GGR. The property reported adjusted segmental EBITDA of PHP2.14 billion in full-year 2018, and recorded an operating loss of nearly US$55.6 million for the period.
The promoters of Okada Manila said in February that they were actively considering rebranding the property.
Okada Manila had a soft opening in late December 2016, with new amenities gradually added to the property since.
