Philippines GGR to grow 15pct annually, suggests Maybank

Jun 29, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck  

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Maybank Securities Inc says it expects the Philippine gaming sector to deliver gross gaming revenue (GGR) growth of “15 percent per annum over the medium term, driven by domestic demand”.

“We maintain our positive view on the Philippine gaming sector as we anticipate sustained growth in the domestic demand-driven mass market; upside from the re-emergence of the VIP segment, led by Korean high-rollers; and limited risk from inflation, competition and regulation,” wrote analysts Miguel Sevidal and Alexa Mae Carvajal in a Wednesday report.

The Philippine casino sector produced GGR of PHP59.26 billion (US$1.07 billion) in the three months to March 31, up by 80.9 percent from the prior-year period, showed official data. The tally – excluding revenue from bingo operations and electronic games parlours – rose by 5.8 percent sequentially.

According to Maybank’s memo, mass-market tables and slot machines produced 59 percent of total industry GGR in first-quarter 2023, “reinforcing the Philippines as a domestic demand-driven market.”

The analysts added: “Mass and slots GGR have further room to grow, as evidenced by the country’s below-average GGR per capita and the increasing wallet share of Entertainment City casinos.”

Entertainment City is a casino resort cluster in the capital Manila (pictured), where some of the country’s large-scale casino resorts are located.

The Maybank team also said it expected the VIP segment “to provide a boost to industry GGR”.

Visitors from South Korea “have led the VIP segment’s recovery so far and this trend is set to continue, with Korean tourist arrivals already hitting 552,000 in [the first] five months of 2023,” about 70 percent of the comparable period in 2019.

“The Korean VIP base has more than offset the lackluster recovery of Chinese tourist arrivals,” stated the analysts.

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