Crown Resorts VIP revenue cut in half following China legal woes

Australian casino operator Crown Resorts saw its VIP gambling activity cut nearly in half in its most recent fiscal year following the company’s legal dustup in China.

On Friday, Crown released a report card detailing its performance over the 12 months to June 30, during which ‘normalized’ net profit after tax – so named because it attempts to smooth out the variance associated with VIP gambling – fell 15.5% to A$343m (US $272.6m).

Actual non-normalized profit nearly doubled to A$1.87b, although A$1.55b of this came via Crown’s dumping of its stake in the Melco Crown Entertainment joint venture (now operating as Melco Resorts & Entertainment) as part of Crown’s decision to restructure and refocus on its domestic resorts.

Speaking of, revenue at Crown’s domestic resorts fell 12.7% to A$2.8b, primarily due to VIP gambling revenue falling 49% year-on-year. By comparison, main floor gaming revenue was down only 1.4% to A$1.65b while non-gaming revenue gained 6.5% to A$718.5m. Domestic earnings were down 12.8% to A$828m.