Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING JULY 2018 22 COVER STORY Philippine market, occupies space once earmarked for expansion of Maxims, a Genting luxury brand also found at its original Malaysia casino resort. The company says the RWM Maxims, where the 2 June gunman shot himself, will become the Philippines’ first Ritz- Carlton. The complex’s Holiday Inn Express was previously under RWM’s Remington brand. “Turning to international brands with an airport location is a smart choice,” Landry says. “In particular I’d expect this to be effective with the international market. Generally speaking international tourists tend to spend more than domestic tourists and some will value the Ritz-Carlton brand.” RWM’s challenges extend beyond last year’s attack. “The property was already experiencing competitive pressure prior to June 2017 and that pressure was largely coming from Entertainment City,” Landry says. RWM’s gaming revenue peaked at Php30 billion in 2013, the year Solaire opened in Entertainment City, a PAGCOR-backed casino hub on Manila Bay six kilometers from RWM. EBITDA and margins peaked a year earlier. Numbers stepped down again with the debuts of Melco’s City of Dreams Manila in December 2014 and Universal Entertainment’s Okada Manila two years later. Also in December 2016, an expressway linking Entertainment City to the airport opened, reducing a lengthy trudge through Manila traffic to a 20 minute breeze. “RWM will likely find a role in the market, but the drawing power of having multiple options in Entertainment City, which is also convenient from the airport, will likely impact revenue in the near term,” Landry says. Travellers says it will open its long-gestating Entertainment City IR, now called Westside City Resorts World, in 2021. As the saying goes, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Despite the attack and the disruption at RWM, Philippine gross gaming revenue hit a record Php170 billion (US$3.2 billion) last year, rising 14% from 2016, extending a lengthy growth story. Strategic Market Advisors Managing Director Matthew Landry . Bloomberry says that mass footfall at its flagship Solaire Resort & Casino was back to normal within two weeks of the RWM attack last June.