City of Dreams proves bet-worthy with 63.5% revenue hike

Reflective of how gaming operations at Pagcor Entertainment City are gaining traction, integrated casino resort City of Dreams (CoD) Manila reported a 63.5-percent increase in net revenues to $491.2 million in 2016.

CoD Manila operator Melco Crown (Philippines) Corp. reported to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday that property level cash flow was at $160.3 million at end-2016, nearly triple the previous year’s level of $55.4 million due to higher casino bets across all markets.

VIP or high-roller gaming volume surged by 110.1 percent last year to $6.83 billion. CoD Manila’s win rate in this segment also improved to 3.4 percent from 2.3 percent in the previous year.

A casino’s “win” or “hold” rate is based on the element of luck, but is also affected by the spread of table limits, a player’s skill and resources and amount of time spent in the casino. While it’s often said that the house always wins, statistical probability shows winning or losing can go either way.

The mass market business also saw a 24.7-percent increase in volume last year to $550.5 million, while the casino’s “hold” rate increased to 28 percent from 26.3 percent.

The volume of bets in gaming machines similarly increased by 25.6 percent to $2.23 billion. The win rate in this segment, however, was a tad lower at 5.9 percent from 6 percent previously.

Melco also reported that total nongaming revenues at CoD Manila slightly improved to $104.7 million from $100.1 million in the previous year.

It was earlier reported that net revenue in the last quarter of 2016 alone had risen by 78.9 percent year-on-year to $144.7 million. Net revenue refers to gross sales less the cost of sales.

About 5.39 million foreign tourists visited the Philippines from January to November last year, 12 percent higher than the level a year ago, mostly from Korea (1.33 million), US (771,849), China (630,327) and Japan (491,261). This 11-month figure also exceeded the full-year 2015 tourist arrivals of 5.36 million. This year, the Department of Tourism expects tourist arrivals to break the seven-million milestone. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla