Australian casino operator Crown Resorts took a beating in its fiscal H1 thanks to the continued challenges facing its Melco Crown Entertainment joint venture.

On Thursday, Crown handed in its H1 report card, which showed net profit falling 22% to AU $205m (US $147.5m) in the six months ending Dec. 31. The struggling Melco Crown was fingered as the culprit, as Crown’s share of the Macau casino operator’s H1 profits fell 89% to $9.4m.

Crown’s shares tumbled nearly 10% on the news – the biggest single-day decline since 2008 – but CEO Rowen Craigie chose to emphasize the “solid” performance at the company’s domestic resorts, which saw ‘normalized’ revenue – so-called because it helps smooth out high-roller variance – rise 4.2% to $1.7b.

The domestic gains came courtesy of a nearly 10% rise in main floor gaming revenue, which offset a 3.8% decline in VIP turnover. Craigie called the latter number a “reasonable outcome” given “the depressed nature” of the Asian VIP gaming market.