Okada Manila in the Philippines has gotten off to a good start this year. The casino’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the first six months has seen substantial gains and it continued to impress throughout the period. By the end of June, the property’s GGR had increased by 44.7% year-on-year to slightly more than $346 million, well above the $239 million seen a year earlier.
In the first half of the year, VIP rolling chip volume increased by 31.3%, reaching $5.17 billion. From January to June 2019, the property reported $3.94 billion in its VIP rolling chip volume. VIP gaming action increased 10.5% year-on-year to $27.62 million, whereas a year earlier it was just slightly more than $25 million.
June continued the trend, with GGR coming in at $58.9 million. This was an increase of 26.4% over the $47.3 million from June 2018. VIP GGR increased to $27.6 million, a 10% climb above the $25.06 million seen a year earlier.
Mass market table gaming saw the biggest improvement in the period, increasing by 58% year-on-year. It came in at $15.41 million compared to the $9.75 million from 2018. Gaming machine revenue also increased, jumping 26.8% to $15.9 million, about $3.5 million more than what was seen last year.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was on the positive side for June, as well. Okada Manila reported that the figure was $8.3 million, compared to a loss of $1.78 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA for the six months since January was $51.5 million—well above the $4 million in the same period of 2018.
The performance was bolstered by an increase in visitation to Okada Manila, which jumped 28.7% year-on-year to 498,203. It had only been 387,085 a year earlier. The success was also helped by an increase in the average daily room rate in June, which increased by 18.6% year-on-year. Last year, it was $166 in June, but was $197 this year. A slight drop in occupancy was seen as June reported 97.8% occupancy, 1.6% lower than the 99.4% from a year ago.
So far this year, April and May were the worst months for the Tiger Resort-promoted property. Its GGR in May was $50.9 million, a drop of 6.7% over May 2018. However, that was better than the $47.7 million it took in from April.
