Gaming City of Dreams Manila expects strong H2

City of Dreams Manila, the second of four integrated resorts in Pagcor Entertainment City, has forecast a strong end to the year as gaming revenues from the VIP segment start to kick in, The Philippine Star reported yesterday.
Willy N. Ocier, chair of the listed Premium Leisure Corp. (PLC) and vice chair of Belle Corp., said City of Dreams (COD) is confident that operations will improve in the second half with the entry of the VIP high-roller sector.
“The second half of 2015 will be strong. COD just started VIP operations in July 2015,” Ocier told the paper.
City of Dreams, a joint venture between the SM Group and Macau casino giant Melco Crown, holds a provisional license to develop and operate a casino in the Entertainment City complex along Manila Bay. It had a soft opening in December 2014 and a grand opening last February.
Melco Crown Philippines incurred wider losses in the second quarter, rising to P1.82 billion from P1.43 billion due to higher operational costs for City of Dreams. This brought its total losses for the six months preceding the end of June to P4.91 billion, more than double the P2.4 billion loss reported in the same period a year ago.
The second integrated resort to open at the Philippines’ version of the Las Vegas strip had a soft opening on December 14, 2014, and a grand opening on February 2 this year. Sitting on a 6.2-hectare property, City of Dreams includes approximately two hectares of gaming space, approximately 900 hotel rooms operated under three hotel brands, an indoor amusement park, and approximately two hectares of restaurant and retail space.
The integrated casino resort has been forced to trim its manpower, letting go of about two percent of its total workforce, which included casino dealers, hotel staff, and food and beverage staff. Commenting on the manpower reduction, Ocier said that the “operations [department] may have overestimated its manning requirements.”
Two other integrated resorts are scheduled to open in Pagcor’s 120-hectare development: Universal Entertainment subsidiary Tiger Resorts’ Manila Bay Resorts, which aims to open in December 2016; and Resorts World Bayshore of the Genting Group and Alliance Global Group, which is slated for completion by 2018.
Gaming revenues from the country’s casinos rose 16 percent in the first semester to USD1.4 billion and are expected to grow further to $3 billion by the end of the year.