Japan’s second largest pachinko hall operator, Dynam Co Ltd, saw its profit more than double in the 12 months to 31 March 2022, boosted by increased demand for both its pachinko and aircraft leasing business segments.
Dynam operates 433 pachinko halls in 46 prefectures and owns three aircraft that it leases to local airlines.
Publishing its FY22 results on Wednesday, the company reported a 6.6% year-on-year increase in revenue to JPY105.14 billion (US$827.3 million), reflecting a 6.7% increase in gross pachinko pay-ins to JPY506.95 billion (US$3.99 billion).
Profit attributable to owners of the Company grew by 111.5% to JPY5.0 billion (US$39.3 million) due to a significant decline in expenses in the pachinko business.
Despite seeing positive momentum in recent months, Dynam said it does not expect to return to pre-COVID business levels for some time to come.
“The Group was able to operate throughout the fiscal year without any industry-wide hall closures, which the Group grappled with in April and May of the previous fiscal year,” it said.
“Revenue from the pachinko business this fiscal year did not reach the level of the fiscal year ended 31 March 2020 before the spread of coronavirus infection [although] the Group secured a revenue hike from the previous year.
“The Group can’t be optimistic about the business surroundings in the future, as there remain concerns about the continued spread of infection caused by new variants of coronavirus.
“Under such circumstances, for all regions where the Group operates pachinko halls, there remain negative effects from emergence of new variants of coronavirus … in consideration [of this], the Group believes that revenue from the pachinko business will [return to a] similar level of the fiscal year ended 31 March 2020 (before the spread of the coronavirus infection) over a few years.”