Philippines Casinos Generates $760M in Q2

The Philippine’s casino market reported an impressive 14.5% increase in its revenues to PHP39.15 billion ($759.4m) for Q2 of 2017, according to data released by PAGCOR, the country’s regulator. As a result, revenues for the first half of the year are now higher by 15.7% year-over-year at PHP75.92 billion, with slot machines and junket operators accounting for much of the boost noted during the period.
As well as regulating the Philippines’ casino industry, PAGCOR also operates 13 casinos throughout the country, although since the market was de-monopolized in 2008 there are now another 18 privately owned casinos also open in the Philippines.
PAGCOR Casinos
In Q2, PAGCOR-operated casinos saw their junket derived business jump almost by a third to PHP1.91 billion ($37.1m), placing revenues for H1 at PHP4.07 billion, and making them a good bet to surpass the PHP6.2 billion PAGCOR generated via junkets for the whole of 2016. By contrast, PAGCOR operated casinos saw their non-junket revenues from table games stay mostly flat at PHP5.94 billion in H1, while their electronic gaming machine noted a slight 2% improvement to PHP7.3 billion.
Private Casinos
Meanwhile, the Philippine’s privately owned casinos saw their combined revenues jump by almost 20% to PHP58.6 billion during the first half of 2017 versus H1 of 2016, with the share of business derived from junkets accounting for PHP17.7 billion of that amount, higher by 13% y-o-y. The country’s privately owned casinos also saw non-junket related table revenue spike by around 13% to PHP23.1 billion, while electronic gaming machine business, too, soared by a massive 31.7% to PHP17.8 billion.
Q3 Forecast
Expected to be released soon is the third quarter figures covering the period from July to September 2017, with indications so far pointing towards a less than stellar quarter, except for the country’s four integrated resorts which are expected to post combined higher revenues versus the previous year, boosted mostly by the Okada Manila resort. According to a Morgan Stanley forecast, these venues should then see an even higher growth rate in Q4, with a MS analyst stating that their businesses will be helped along by “stronger seasonality, ramp up of Okada, and normalisation of VIP luck.”