Okada Manila earnings sink as gaming slowdown deepens
Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc. (TRLEI), the owner of Okada Manila integrated casino resort, registered a 53- percent drop in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) during the first quarter—signaling that the local casino business is still far from a recovery.
The firm’s preliminary financial results for the first three months of 2026 show that EBITDA fell to ₱830 million in the first quarter of this year from ₱1.78 billion during the same period in 2025.
Total revenues decreased 15 percent to ₱7.41 billion from ₱8.75 billion in the first quarter of last year, as gross gaming revenue (GGR) declined by 17 percent to ₱6.47 billion in the first quarter of 2026 from ₱7.81 billion during the same period in 2025.
The numbers show that it is not just the VIP business that is facing challenges, since even GGR from the mass market fell despite the higher number of visitors to the resort.
VIP table game GGR dropped 19 percent to ₱1.44 billion from ₱1.77 billion, while mass table game GGR fell by a steeper 24 percent to ₱2.3 billion from ₱3.04 billion, and gaming machine GGR dipped nine percent to ₱2.73 billion from ₱2.99 billion in 2025.
Non-gaming revenues fared a little better, rising marginally to ₱944 million in the first quarter of 2026 from ₱941 million in the same period last year.
Hotel occupancy rate improved to 83.9 percent from 82.9 percent, but average daily room rate was lower at ₱10,138 from ₱10,336, while average revenue per room declined to ₱8,502 from ₱8,569.
Total property visitors inched up to 1.41 million in the first quarter of this year from 1.4 million during the same period in 2025.
Abacus Securities Corp. noted that “weakness was across the board. The good news is that VIP rolling chip volume was actually up a whopping 81 percent quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2025 versus the first quarter of 2026. This is despite the continued downtrend in visitors from traditional markets South Korea and China.”
“However, this may be a brief respite as the war in Iran will probably take a toll on casino companies' performances in the current quarter. It is also possible that the sequential surge in rolling chip volume was a one-off, maybe from a group of high rollers. What we are saying is that we prefer to see a positive trend before reversing our bearish outlook on the integrated resort industry,” the brokerage said.
During the annual stockholders’ meeting (ASM) of parent company Universal Entertainment Corp., management said they continue to prioritize service quality and staff training since “we believe customer satisfaction improvement is key to earnings recovery.”