In the Philippines and the extended closure of land-based casinos due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic reportedly caused the sector’s aggregated second-quarter gross gaming revenues to plummet by 95.7% year-on-year to just over $46.85 million.

According to a report from Inside Asian Gaming, the three-month figure was contained within an update published by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCor) regulator and followed a first quarter in which the industry had recorded an associated finishing tally of about $936.73 million.

Serious stoppage:

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte instituted a nationwide lockdown of gambling establishments from March 15 in an attempt to help stop the spread of a highly-contagious coronavirus strain that by that time had killed twelve locals. The source also detailed that this financially disastrous prohibition began being lifted in May although properties located in and around metropolitan Manila were subsequently required to wait until earlier this month before being allowed to re-open at 30% capacities.

Indicative importance:

The information from PAGCor reportedly moreover showed that private-sector land-based casinos in the Philippines generated aggregated second-quarter gross gaming revenues of around $44.57 million with some 90% of this at roughly $40.44 million having come from Manila’s quartet of integrated casino resorts, which encompass the giant City of Dreams Manila, Okada Manila, Solaire Resort and Casino and Resorts World Manila developments.

The PAGCor data reportedly furthermore disclosed that aggregated second-quarter gross gaming revenues from the Philippines’ chain of state-owned Casino Filipino-branded properties decreased by over 99% year-on-year to roughly $1.81 million while privately-run junket operations saw their associated takings decline by 92% to $2.67 million.

Regulator reduction:

Perhaps foreshadowing these latest figures and PAGCor reportedly announced in July that it had racked up a loss of approximately $33.01 million for the first six months of the year after earlier chalking up a first-quarter profit of roughly $16.03 million, which suggested an actual second-quarter deficit of closer to $49 million.