Manila’s Winford casino hotel promoter widens 1Q loss

MJC Investments Corp, promoter of the Winford Hotel and Casino (pictured) in the Philippine capital Manila, widened its first-quarter net loss by 66.4 percent, to PHP157.4 million (US$3.1 million) from a net loss of PHP94.6 million in the prior-year quarter.

Its share of revenue from gaming operations fell by 68.6 percent year-on-year in the three months to March 31, at PHP36.7 million, from PHP116.9 million a year earlier, it said in a Tuesday filing to the Manila Stock Exchange.

The decrease in share of gaming revenue was the result of lower numbers of “operating gaming tables and electronic gaming machines – slot machines – to comply with social distancing policy,” as a Covid-19 countermeasure, said the firm.

Gaming at the property is run under the licence of the country’s regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor).

MJC Investments noted by way of historical comparison that average monthly foot traffic at Winford Hotel and Casino and the leisure complex where it is based, had decreased from 120,000 in 2019 to only 30,000 in 2020, coinciding with the pandemic.

Operating costs and expenses for the entire leisure complex including Winford Hotel and Casino were reduced by 26.3 percent in the reporting period, to PHP164.4 million, from PHP223.1 million in the prior-year quarter.

Costs fell due to “lower depreciation, salaries and wages, gaming fees, contracted services, cost of hotel room and supplies, advertising and marketing, professional fees, banquet, entertainment, cost of food, beverage and tobacco and other operational expenses.”

That saving had been partially offset by “increase in taxes and licences”, stated MJC Investments, a business associate of the Manila Jockey Club Inc.

Hotel revenue for MJC Investments slipped by 57.0 percent year-on-year, to PHP6.5 million, from PHP15.1 million.

The decrease in hotel revenue was due to “the mandatory closure” of hotels as part of countermeasures against Covid-19.

The firm added the hotel was “not yet permitted” to take leisure bookings, and was “currently operating as a quarantine facility thus, its only source of revenue are the bookings from the returning overseas Filipinos and… the crew of shipping companies”.

Revenue from bingo operations decreased from PHP8.9 million in 2020 to nil in 2021. “The bingo operations have only operated until March 13, 2020 and did not resume to operate up to date,” stated MJC Investments in its filing.