Macau junket investor Tak Chun Group has announced that a new VIP club could soon be added to the Okada Manila casino resort in the Philippines.
In an interview with GGRAsia, the junket group confirmed that it plans on opening the VIP room, which will offer 18 gaming tables across five rooms. It will be the third VIP room for Tak Chun in the Philippines market.
Tak Chun already has a VIP room at the Solaire Resort and Casino and the City of Dreams Manila. Both are located in Manila, a rising hot spot for gamblers. The launch of the third VIP club is part of the company’s plans to expand throughout Asia, and executives anticipate a double-digit climb in the amount of gamblers it serves in 2018.
Okada’s gambling operations have had a strong run since 2017; however, the opening of the first section of its first hotel at the beginning of this year will help produce substantially higher returns in the area in 2018. The first hotel tower, Tower A, will offer around 500 rooms when it’s completed. An additional amount of rooms could be added by the end of 2019.
Morgan Stanley Asia predicts that overall gambling growth in Manila will increase by about 32% this year. Of this, Okada should account for 18%. The 32% increase signals an increase of 8% over last year’s numbers. VIP gambling in the Philippines brought in around $1 billion in 2017.
Tak Chun also has 15 VIP clubs that it owns in the Macau market. The clubs are co-located in five-star casino resorts, all offering a minimum of 10 gaming tables spread across four to eight rooms. The company’s continued expansion has already produced an increase in revenue of 30% year on year from 2016 to 2017.
Casinos throughout the Asian Pacific market have enjoyed steady climbs in revenue for the past couple of years. Macau, Singapore and the Philippines have become top destinations for gamblers, with Macau leading the way. Macau’s casinos earned $16 billion last year, followed by Singapore with $2 billion and the Philippines reporting revenue of $1 billion.
