Casino Resorts outside Manila possible for $300 million

The gaming regulator in the Philippines says that the country is open to allowing casino resorts to be built outside of Manila but would require a minimum investment of $300 million to be able to gain a license.

 

“There are areas which I think are very ripe for a casino,” Cristino Naguiat, chairman of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., said in an interview, but did not elaborate on where those locations could be.

 

The agency is “open to giving out a casino license if it can help boost economic activity and if the people in the area want it. We’re developing a template to ensure that no one would be granted a license unless an investment commitment is made.”

 

The Philippines has already four resorts being built in the 120-hectare seaside Entertainment City complex in the capital with a minimum investment of $1 billion each.

 

Any new locations and investments in the casino industry is expected to happen once the incumbent president Benigno Aquino’s six-year term ends in June, Naguiat said. Aquino’s administration followed his predecessor Gloria Arroyo’s guidance on investment requirements for the casinos operating in the Entertainment City, which is $1 billion of investment should any developer want to build a casino resort there.

 

“They are trying to replicate Entertainment City on a smaller scale. This will create competitors,” Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist at BDO Unibank Inc. “Operators in Entertainment City will have to be on their toes because if they are complacent it’s not impossible that some of the traffic will go to these provincial casinos if the properties are world class”