Inside Asian Gaming

IAG DEC 2022年12月 亞博匯 32 Php13.9 billion (US$242 million) were still 89% higher year-on- year and 2% up on the June 2022 quarter. City of Dreams Manila, the smallest of Manila’s IRs, does not directly report gaming revenues, but its parent Melco Resorts revealed gaming revenues at its Manila casino of US$74.1 million in 3Q22, up from US$42.7 million a year earlier. What’s most telling about these numbers is that they have been achieved with international visitation still tracking at only a third of 2019 levels. According to figures published by the Department of Tourism, total visitor arrivals into the Philippines, since a mandatory quarantine requirement was scrapped in February, had reached 2.0 million as of 14 November compared with 8.2 million arrivals through all of 2019. Visitation from China, which accounted for 21% of all arrivals pre-COVID, numbered just 22,236 between January and September compared with 1,743,309 through 2019. All of which means it is the domestic mass market currently driving the Philippines’ impressive resurgence – a view supported by Maybank Securities analyst Miguel Sevidal. Following a recent tour of all four Entertainment City IRs, Sevidal wrote in an October note, “We observed that the mass tables and slot machines of Solaire and City of Dreams Manila were almost fully utilized, whereas those of Newport Manila and Okada Manila were operating at closer to 60-70% capacity.” This, he added, validated his positive view of domestic demand-driven growth at Bloomberry’s Solaire, for which Maybank provides coverage. There is movement north of Manila, too, where the unique golf and gaming destination of Clark continues its rapid expansion via the recently launched Hann Casino Resort, previously known as Widus, and a similar expansion project set to open at nearby Royce Hotel and Casino. Calculating the individual recovery trajectory of Clark’s seven casinos is challenging COVER STORY