In late June, the Tigre de Cristal decided to work with two fixed room junket operators. Since that time, the VIP gaming sector has seen significant growth, based on information from the interim report of the casino promoter which was released in September. Now it seems that the Union Gaming Securities Asia Ltd. analyst group has determined that the casino resort will be able to see strong growth in the VIP gaming within the next two years.

In a note published today, Grant Govertsen, an analyst of the industry, stated that the forecast for Tigre de Cristal is that the monthly VIP volume is expected to come in at HKD2 billion. This would be an amount of just over $257 million for the second half of this year. In 2017, the VIP rolling chip volume is expected to increase around 19percent year-on-year and reach HKD2.4 billion. By 2018, the amount has been estimated at HKD2.8 billion.

According to Govertsen, the amounts are broadly within a line of what has been seen in other jurisdictions as a VIP program begins. The analyst did note that the forecast for VIP gaming in 2018 for the casino is around 1 percent of the Macau market size for VIP gaming, which is at .6% for the second half of this year.

The Tigre de Cristal is considered a VIP-focused casino despite the fact that the mass market business for the venue covers almost all property operational expenses. According to the forecast, the mass gaming table volumes for the property are believed to grow from 8 to 9 percent next year to $77.5 million.

G1 Entertainment LLC holds the gaming license for the casino, with Summit Ascent holding the entire equity interest of the G1 company. In the memo today, Govertsen forecast Summit Ascent to post an EBITDA in the mid-teens with growth over the next two years, being outsized with growth in 2020 after phase two of the Tigre de Cristal is complete.

Phase two of the casino resort will cover an area of 100,000 square meters and construction is said to begin during the second half of next year. The phase is set to include more hotel guest rooms, shopping areas, restaurants and conference space. The cost of this phase is estimated at around $500 million.

Reportedly, the second phase will be representative of a brand new resort instead of an expansion of the existing casino. As far as gaming is concerned, the second phase will include 100 VIP gaming tables as well as 500 slot machines and electronic games plus 70 mass tables.