MACAU BUSINESS By José Carlos Matias
By Paolo A. Azevedo
Jeju – the new Singapore
Okada Manila is riding the wave of the Philippine market boom, cashing in on the country’s early post-COVID reopening. Vice President, Manida Lau, discusses plans to surpass market leader Solaire.
acau Business – From Lotte World, a major recreational complex [with the world’s largest indoor theme park, in Seoul] to an integrated resort with casino in Jeju. A different beast. A
D
espite the headlines surrounding the feud with its founder, Kazuo Okada, the integrated resort moves forward “business as usual.”
The Philippine gaming market has stolen the
natural evolution? Lawrence Teo – Business is the same. But building
18 OCTOBER 2017
limelight in the early stages of post-COVID recovery. After the Philippines reopened its international borders in February 2022, the country’s gaming industry gained momentum. The government further eased venue capacity restrictions in March 2022 and completely lifted all lockdowns by April of the same year. This ‘first-mover’ advantage paid off with gross gaming revenue reaching PHP 214 billion in 2022, 83.6 per cent of the full 2019 tally - PHP 256 billion (US$4.6 billion) – a record-breaking year. 2023 has brought an even rosier picture so far, with countrywide gross gaming revenue (GGR) reaching PHP 136.37 billion (US$2.47 billion), up 48.7 per cent from the same period last year. Okada Manila, one of the leading properties of the casino cluster Entertainment City, located in Manila Bay, saw robust growth in its first-semester GGR tally of 59.6 per cent to PHP 22.9 billion (US$421 million).
20 SEPTEMBER 2023
a landmark. M. B. – The group [Lotte] has created other landmarks in different types of business. Why would this be different? L. T. – Yes, Lotte Group has already created
downtown Seoul and Lotte Super Tower. We’re trying
per cent year-on-year increase in VIP table games, while mass tables grew by 40.1 per cent. “The VIP GGR segment – junket generated and premium direct – is doing quite well,” Manida Lau said. Currently, the VIP segment accounts for some 39 per cent of the property’s total GGR versus 61 per cent generated by the mass market segment. The domestic market has been the main driver,
comprising about 70 per cent, while the South Korea market has emerged as the main foreign market, with Japan also playing an important role. Manida Lau explains, “The Philippines reopened its borders earlier than a lot of countries, and by that time South Korea and Japan also started to reopen.”
Jeju will be as big as Singapore in terms of Gross Gaming Revenue, predicts Lawrence Teo. The Chief Operations Officer and Vice President of Dream Tower, the tallest Integrated Resort under construction on the Korean destination island, explains to Macau Business why Lotte Tour decided to enter the casino business and create a landmark. All bets are on making the casino resort the crown of the tourism jewel the company has been dominating for four decades
Seizing the momentum M
Better than expected Manida Lau, Vice President for Business Solutions and Premium Marketing Operations of Okada Manila, told Macau Business that “so far this year the results have surpassed our expectations,” adding that compared to 2019, the integrated resort has already recovered to 90 to 95 per cent of the last full pre-COVID year. In the second quarter alone, Okada Manila saw a 36.4
to do the Dream Tower in Jeju. Lotte here is being just a family company; we’re a different company [Lotte Tour]. It’s not going to be [just] the tallest and the largest building in Jeju, that’s just the hardware. We say that a landmark should be the most visited destination, where tourists will go to eat, shop and maybe [visit] our observation deck. A must-visit point destination. Because of the hardware, and also the software.
M. B. – What are the main goals that you definitely
want to achieve with this Integrated Resort (IR)? L. T. – Number one EBIDTA on IR in Korea. There’s
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