Full build-out in December 2019
Casino investor Universal Entertainment Corp. says it will add more guest rooms to the Okada Manila resort in the Philippine capital’s Entertainment City casino zone. In a filing to JASDAQ, Universal called the expansion “highest priority.”
Universal also plans an “expansion of the gaming area, including the addition of a casino exclusively for VIP guests”; the opening of “more restaurants” and enlargement of a retail shopping area “to attract an even larger number of guests.” No timeline for the expansion was announced.
Okada Manila, named for former Universal Entertainment chief Kazuo Okada, had a soft opening in December 2016, and is scheduled to be completed by December 2019, reports GGRAsia. The finished property will have about 1,000 hotel rooms in two towers.
“This casino and resort has expanded amenities other than the casino to a level that no competitor can match,” according to Universal’s filing. “There are many VIP visitors from China, South Korea and other Asian countries as well as large numbers of guests who live in the Philippines.”
The company said a VIP gaming club will “make a big contribution” to its annual revenues. Casino sales were JPY16.05 billion (US$147.3 million) in the nine months to December 31. The firm posted an operating loss of JPY9.02 billion (US$82.5 million) in that segment for the reporting period because of what it termed fixed expenses.
Groupwide, the business, which also makes casino electronic games and pachinko machines, generated net sales of nearly JPY68.55 billion (US$627 million), and a net loss of nearly JPY13.43 billion (US$122.8 million).
Japanese billionaire Okada, the company’s founder, was ousted in 2017 following allegations of fraud and misappropriation of company funds. Okada denies the allegations.
