Crown Resorts reports profit decrease

The Australian operator Crown Resorts has reported that its annual profits decreased due to less Chinese tourists in the territory.

Australia.- Crown Resorts reported on Wednesday its financial report from the last fiscal year ended June 30. The operator said that profits fell due to a decline in the number of Chinese tourists in the territory.

Crown’s normalised net profit decreased 4.7% to €225 million in the last fiscal year. The results were down by €6.1k when compared to the million average forecast from Refinitiv, Reuters reported.

The company said that VIP sales, which mainly consists of Chinese tourists on package holidays, decreased 26.1%. High rollers from China decreased their spending, which shows that the trade war between the United States and China is hurting Australian business as well. “Visitation has been good but average spend has been in decline,” Crown Executive Chairman John Alexander said in a statement.

Moreover, non-VIP gambling revenue in Melbourne’s casino increased 1.5% to €1 billion. Poker machine (pokies) revenue also reported positive results and showed a 2.8% increase during the last fiscal year.

“Crown’s main floor gaming and nongaming revenue has demonstrated resilience, mitigating volatility within its VIP business,” said ratings agency S&P Global Ratings Australia Pty Ltd.