Japan’s Universal Entertainment Corp has pointed to a slowdown in the junket business as having negatively impacted the Philippines casino business after reporting a decline in group-wide sales and profit for the first half of 2024. The company also suffered a decline in its pachinko or “Amusement Equipments Business”.
Universal is the parent company of Okada Manila, located in Manila’s Entertainment City precinct in Parañaque.
In a filing, the company noted that the second quarter performance of Okada Manila had, much like the first quarter, been down from a year earlier, stating, “The number of VIP guests at Okada Manila continued to decline as the slowdown of the junket business negatively affected the overall market conditions for the casino business in the Philippines.
“Although the performance of the mass market and gaming machine sectors was down from one year earlier when demand rebounded following the pandemic, sales are increasing steadily in comparison with the pre-pandemic peak sales of this business in 2019. In the hotel and food and beverage businesses, the number of guests is consistently high.”
Universal said Okada Manila had posted net sales of JPY41.7 billion (US$284 million) in the first six months of 2024, down 13.1% year-on-year, with operating profit down 55.1% to JPY3.28 billion (US$22.4 million) and Adjusted Segment EBITDA down 22.3% to JPY11.7 billion (US$79.8 million).
In the “Amusement Equipments Business”, sales fell by 32.6% to JPY20.8 billion (US$142 million) with operating profit down 51.1% to JPY3.76 billion (US$25.6 million).
Pachislot continued to outperform pachinko, the company explained, stating, “The business climate for pachislot machines is good because of the consistently strong performance of smart pachislot machines, which are meeting the expectations of pachinko hall operators.
“In the pachinko sector, deliveries of machines with a lucky trigger function, which allows players to win more balls, have started. Sales of these machines are currently somewhat slow in comparison with the strong sales in the pachislot category.”
Group-wide, sales fell by 20.7% to JPY62.9 billion (US$429 million) with net income attributable to owners of parent down 97.5% to JPY525 million (US$3.6 million).
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