GGRAsia – Philippine 2023 GGR maybe over US$5bln: GCG consultancy

Philippine 2023 GGR maybe over US$5bln: GCG consultancy

Aug 21, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

The Philippine casino sector could generate gross gaming revenue (GGR) equal to “US$5.2 billion to US$5.9 billion” for the full-year 2023. Were the actual 2023 figure to be within that range, it should exceed the pre-pandemic year of 2019 – which produced the equivalent of US$4.84 billion – suggested industry consultancy GCG Gaming Advisory Services Pty Ltd.

The data refer to entire industry GGR, including non-casino bingo and electronic games parlours, and state-run casinos, as well as the commercial-sector properties in Entertainment City Manila, Clark, Cebu and elsewhere.

Entertainment City venues should again have the biggest annual share of GGR, circa “US$3.6 billion to US$4.0 billion” in 2023, suggested the consultancy.

Entertainment City resorts produced about 76.8 percent of all industry GGR in the three months to June 30, i.e., PHP43.47 billion (US$769.5 million), according to the latest data released by the country’s casino regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor). The figure was down 4.3 percent in sequential terms, but up 17.5 percent from a year earlier.

The sequential decline for Entertainment City was “of concern,” said GCG Gaming Advisory Services. It stated: “We attribute this to the market being predominately local and the US$2.4 billion drawn off those players over the past two quarters may have seen some regulars tapping out.”

The proposed fourth-quarter 2024 opening of a casino hotel in the Westside City project in Entertainment City “should see more players overall” in the market, said the consultancy.

The new venue would be “right in the middle” of the Manila casino cluster formed by City of Dreams Manila, Solaire Resort and Casino, and Okada Manila.

GCG Gaming Advisory Services said that while Newport World Resorts near Manila International Airport, was an “outlier” relative to the other commercial resorts in the capital, it had “many more” hotel brands to offer compared to its competitors, and “a second, newer, casino floor located alongside the Sheraton and Hilton” hotel brands on site.

The cluster of commercial casinos in the Clark Freeport Zone, also on the Philippines’ main island, Luzon, is estimated as a “US$600 million to US$700 million” market, in terms of casino GGR throughout 2023, suggested GCG Gaming Advisory Services.

The consultancy’s update noted Clark Freeport Zone in central Luzon, south of the capital, had a commercial-casino cluster of its own. It features: Royce Hotel and Casino; Hann Casino Resort; D’Heights Resort and Casino; Midori Clark Hotel and Casino; Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino; and Capital Casino Clark.

“Hann, D’ Heights and Royce should be an estimated 75 percent of the potential US$600 million to US$700 million market. Other properties, such as Fontana, Casino Plus, Capital and Midori are renovating and expanding to compete,” observed the consultancy.

Cebu’s commercial-casino market – which includes NUSTAR Resort and Casino – might generate “US$70 million to US$90 million” GGR for full-year 2023.

GCG Gaming Advisory Services maintained its view mentioned in a forecasting paper earlier this year, that the Philippines casino market could achieve “US$10 billion” in annual GGR for full-year 2027.

That would be even higher than starting range of US$8 billion by 2028 mentioned by Alejandro Tengco, chairman and chief executive of Pagocr, in comments published last week.