A decline in VIP gaming at the company’s Philippine integrated resort Okada Manila and a sharp drop in domestic sales of pachislot and pachinko machines have pushed Japanese gaming company Universal Entertainment Corp (UEC) to a loss of 15.6 billion yen (US$102.5 million) for 2024. A year earlier, the company reported a net profit of 28.4 billion yen (US$186.5 million).
In a series of reports, UEC noted that Okada Manila posted net revenue of ¥82.0 billion in fiscal 2024, down 15.4% year-on-year, and segment adjusted EBITDA of ¥19.6 billion, down 34.8% year-on-year, after VIP guest numbers continued to decline.
“The slowdown of the junket business negatively affected the overall market conditions for the casino business in the Philippines,” the company explained. “Although sales in the mass market and gaming machine category has steadily increased overall since the pre-pandemic peak sales of this business in 2019, their performance in the fiscal year 2024 was down from the previous year when demand significantly rebounded following the pandemic.”
However, it added, “In the hotel and food and beverage businesses, the number of guests is consistently high and revenue continues to increase.”
In the Entertainment Equipment section, UEC explained that its strategy in 2024 was to concentrate the release and sale of a few major titles in the second half of the year, but instead pushed a number of releases to 2025 due to “low pass rates of our machines in the model test.”
As a result, the number of units sold decreased from 180,632 in 2023 to 92,150 in 2024, leading to a 46.3% decline in net sales to 43.5 billion yen and a 69.6% decline in operating profit to 7.31 billion yen.
However, UEC said it maintains a positive outlook for both its integrated resort business and its amusement equipment business.
Okada Manila explained that it is recruiting and training people to strengthen its marketing capabilities in the gaming business.
“These activities enable us to attract a broader range of local guests who live in the Philippines as well as tourists from Japan, South Korea and other Southeast Asian countries,” it said. “In addition, we will work to penetrate our new online gaming platform targeting the Philippine locals, which has begun operating in 2024, and conduct extra promotion through our membership program, Reward Circle.”
Similarly, UEC said the market environment for pachislot slot machines is favorable, with the market share of pachislot smart slot machines steadily increasing due to their high usage rate.
“In the Pachinko category, the game elements of the Smart Pachinko machines are to become richer, and the emergence of hit titles in the near future is expected and hence leading to the revitalization of the market,” it said.
“Universal Entertainment will continue striving to develop unique and appealing titles, contributing to the revitalization of the entire amusement equipment industry as well as expanding our market share.”
Don’t forget to subscribe to our Telegram channel!
