GGRAsia – Pandemic showed casinos value of locals: PH Resorts COO

Pandemic showed casinos value of locals: PH Resorts COO

Aug 25, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

The Covid-19 pandemic had been a “great reminder” for casino operators about ensuring “you understand your local market”, said on Thursday José Angel Sueiro (pictured), chief operating officer at PH Resorts Group Holdings Inc. He was speaking at a conference panel about market diversification on the second day of Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2022.

Only after that assessment – assuming an operator has the luxury of being able to cater to local players – can they start to look more closely at their overseas markets, added Mr Sueiro. Locals play is allowed in the Philippine market.

PH Resorts, a part of entrepreneur Dennis Uy’s empire, is currently constructing the Emerald Bay Resort and Casino in Cebu. It is likely be completed in the “first quarter of 2023,” the group had said in its first-quarter results.

In order to position a resort for marketing purposes, managements needed clarity and honesty about a venue’s disadvantages as well as advantages, rather than trying to be all things to all consumer segments, said Mr Sueiro.

When you put all these elements into place, “is when you can really define the final product, so that it should be successful”, rather than trying to “cater for all these different segments,” he added.

In terms of adjusting the casino industry’s offer to consumers – the title of the panel was “Diversification in a post-Covid era” - Mr Sueiro noted “human behaviour didn’t change” in the past few years.

While the Covid-19 pandemic was a “dramatic circumstance”, the “fundamentals” of the industry applied. “Gaming is a resilient industry by definition, because it is based on a human emotion,” Mr Sueiro stated.

There were nonetheless, new “trends” in the sector, he added.

The growth of online gambling – which is currently being offered by a number of private-sector casinos in the Philippines, notably properties at Entertainment City in Manila – meant that “the integrated resort experience can expand” into the online environment, even “when we arrive home”.

Why casinos were “bouncing” back “so fast in jurisdictions like the U.S. and the Philippines,” was “because people want to have fun, they want to go out, they want to enjoy life”, asserted Mr Sueiro.