Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Tokyo-based Universal Entertainment Corporation continues to struggle with weak sales of new pachinko and pachislot machines, while its casino business in the Philippines is still producing losses due to the pandemic.
Universal admits that it had been expecting a recovery in its pachinko machines business due to the progress of Covid vaccination and an increase in consumer spending. However, this has not been the case.
“In the amusement machine industry,” the company statement noted, “there is still no recovery in the number of customers or level of operations at pachinko halls even though they are operating along with numerous pandemic safety measures. In this difficult business climate, pachinko hall operators remain cautious about replacing existing machines with new titles. As a result, the sales volume of pachinko and pachislot machines was low.”
As a result, net sales from the January-September 2021 period were down almost 37% year-on-year, coming in at ¥35.1 billion (US$310 million). Operating profits in the segment were ¥4.9 billion (US$44 million).
Meanwhile, Universal Entertainment also owns the Okada Manila casino resort in the Philippines. Here, the company reported that “sales remained almost unchanged because the gaming operations at the integrated casino resort Okada Manila limited operations to 50% of total capacity” due to the pandemic.
Net sales from Okada Manila in the January-September 2021 period were ¥21.7 billion (US$191 million), producing operating losses of ¥2.5 billion (US$22.4 million).
Last month, representatives of the company indicated that they would seek opportunities to enter the Integrated Resort (IR) market in Japan.
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