City of Dreams Manila Q1 net revenues at $157.4M

Tourist and casino players arrive at the grand opening of the City of Dreams mega-casino in Manila on February 2, 2015. Six gleaming golden towers surrounding a giant egg-shaped dome opened as the Philippines’ newest playground for the obscenely rich on Feb. 2, dwarfing the capital’s vast slums. AFP PHOTO/JAY DIRECTO

Integrated gaming resort City of Dreams Manila saw a 65-percent year-on-year jump in net revenues to $157.4 million in the first quarter, reflective of a booming gaming business in Pagcor Entertainment City, envisioned to be the country’s version of the Las Vegas strip.

CoD Manila, a partnership between property developer Belle Corp. and gaming hub operator Melco Crown group of Macau, is expected by its owners to post the largest gross gaming revenues in the Philippine gaming industry this year.

Based on a report filed by CoD Manila operator Melco Crown (Philippines) Corp., cash flow from this gaming hub more than doubled to $61.1 million in the first quarter from $28.6 million as casino revenues were boosted by higher volume bets alongside an improved win ratio across key gaming segments.

A casino’s “win” or “hold” rate is based on the element of luck but is also affected by gaming 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, sometimes it wins more and sometimes less than the statistical probability.

In the case of CoD Manila, rolling chip volume surged by 60 percent year-on-year to $2.4 billion in the first three months. The casino’s win rate in this segment also increased to 3.4 percent compared to 2.8 percent last year, exceeding the casino’s projected win rate range of 2.7 to 3 percent.

Bets on mass market table games also rose by 27.8 percent year-on-year to $153.9 million. For every $1 of bet on the table, the house earned 28.7 cents, better than the 27.5 cents earned in the same period last year.

Gaming volume via slot machines also surged by 61.7 percent to $729.9 million. The win rate in this gaming machines was also slightly higher, with the house winning 6.2 cents for every $1 of bets placed on the gaming handles compared to 6.1 cents in the same quarter last year.

Meanwhile, non-gaming revenues at CoD Manila improved by 14.5 percent to $27.6 million.

Upbeat on the performance of CoD Manila, Belle earlier said it’s looking to expand the existing integrated resort and is now actively scouting for a second site to build on a new estate outside Pagcor Entertainment City.

In the first three months of 2017, Belle’s net profit attributable to equity holders of parent firm grew by 79.2 percent to P621.68 million, driven mostly by revenues from CoD Manila.