Japanese conglomerate Universal Entertainment Corp, the parent of the Okada Manila casino resort (pictured) in the Philippine capital Manila, says a decline in the number of VIP guests has negatively affected the property’s gaming business in the three months to June 30.

The parent said second-quarter performance at Okada Manila was down from a year earlier, as the “number of VIP guests … continued to decline” in the period.

That was because a “slowdown of the junket business negatively affected the overall market conditions for the casino business in the Philippines,” stated Universal Entertainment in a Thursday announcement.

It added that although in the second quarter “the performance of the mass market and gaming machine sectors was down from a year earlier,” a period when sales rebounded after Covid-19, sales in those segments in the latest reporting period had increased “steadily” relative to the “pre-pandemic peak sales … in 2019”.

The company also noted that in the hotel and food and beverage businesses, “the number of guests is consistently high”.

Second quarter casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) at Okada Manila declined by 21.8 percent year-on-year, to PHP8.84 billion (US$154.1 million), according to a July filing from its promoter. The property is directly operated by Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc.

Quarterly GGR at Okada Manila has been declining in year-on-year terms since the end of the third quarter of last year, according to company information.

Second-quarter adjusted segmental earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for Okada Manila declined by 30.0 percent from a year earlier, to PHP2.15 billion. Such earnings went down by 8.0 percent sequentially.

Universal Entertainment said on Thursday that Okada Manila was “recruiting and training people” in order to “strengthen marketing capabilities in the gaming business”.

“One goal is to attract more people living in areas of the Philippines other than Luzon Island, where Manila is located, to serve a broader range of guests who live in the Philippines,” stated the parent.

“Measures to strengthen marketing activities also have the goal of attracting tourists from Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries,” it added.

Universal Entertainment recently replaced an overseas private bond issue – in a principal amount of US$760 million – with bank loans and a private offering of U.S. dollar-denominated bonds.