Aristocrat opens showroom in Manila, first in the Philippines

Casino slot machine maker and digital games provider Aristocrat Leisure Ltd opened on Tuesday what it called “the first dedicated gaming showroom” in the Philippines. The venue – part of the firm’s new offices – is located in Pasay City, Manila, close to the private-sector casino resorts at Entertainment City.

“Displaying a full range of games currently successful in the Philippines such as Dragon Link, Tian Ci Ji Lu and 5 Dragons Pearl, the showroom also showcases Aristocrat’s comprehensive game roadmap for the next 12 months,” the firm said in a press release.

It added: “This means that local operators do not have to travel to trade shows or overseas to view the latest games – they can do so conveniently right here in Manila.”

Aristocrat stated that the showroom would also be used to “train and educate” professionals in the Philippines gaming industry, in line with a focus by the local gaming regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), “on talent development within the sector”.

The press release quoted Lloyd Robson, general manager of Aristocrat for Asia, as saying: “We’ve tripled our team [in the Philippines] and now we have a first-class office and showroom to give our customers the best experience in the industry.”

More than 40 customers and representatives from the Philippines gaming industry, including from venues in Manila, Clark and Cebu, attended the official opening of Aristocrat’s new facilities in that nation’s capital. That included officials from Pagcor and gaming executives from the resorts at Entertainment City.

Entertainment City encompasses Solaire Resort and Casino, Okada Manila, City of Dreams Manila and Newport World Resorts.

The Philippines market is increasingly becoming more important for Aristocrat. In its financial year to September 30, 2022, the firm said the international-markets segment for ‘Class III’-standard casino slots “grew post-tax earnings by AUD36.9 million [US$24.5 million]”. The improvement was “due to new, large openings in the Philippines, as Asian and European markets continued to emerge slowly” from “post Covid-19 lockdowns”, Aristocrat said in its annual report filed in December to the Australian Securities Exchange.

The Philippines’ gaming regulator estimates that the country’s 2023 gross gaming revenue (GGR) will be PHP244.84 billion (US$4.41 billion), according to a press release published in March. The forecast is 14.23-percent higher than the actual GGR recorded for full-year 2022, at PHP214.33 billion, stated Pagcor.