Okada: Creating “the next Hawaii”
Okada Manila, the $2.4 billion integrated resort named for its owner, Japanese billionaire and gaming tycoon Kazuo Okada, has opened in Manila’s Entertainment City tourism zone. The deluxe casino resort includes a 440,000-square-foot gaming hall, a 993-room, five-star hotel and a nightclub that reportedly will cover 97,000 square feet. An official at the resort said it expects more than 20,000 visitors per day.
Okada Manila opened December 21 in what management has called a “preview period”; the official grand opening will take place later this quarter. The resort was developed by Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Okada’s Universal Entertainment Inc.
“We want guests to not exactly enjoy to gamble,” Okada Manila President Steve Wolstenholme told the Manila Standard. “What we offer is fun and entertainment.”
He said the casino has space for 500 gaming tables and 3,000 electronic gaming machines. Other attractions include an exhibit space called the Café Museum, which will display 80 pieces of art and sculpture from Okada’s private collection. An 8,600-foot glazed passageway, which Wolstenholme called a “crystal corridor,” will feature digital entertainment. When it’s completed, Okada Manila will cover 53 acres and include two hotels, a dancing water fountain, a 4,500-capacity beach club and nightclub, high-end food and beverage outlets, retail outlets, a spa and meeting areas.
It joins two other resorts in Entertainment City: Bloomberry Resorts’ Solaire Resort Casino, and Melco Crown’s City of Dreams Manila. The fourth and final integrated resort planned for the 1,976-acre parcel in metropolitan Manila is a project of Travellers International Hotel Group and Malaysia’s Genting conglomerate, which already operate the Resorts World Manila casino outside Entertainment City.
Parañaque City Administrator Ding Soriano told the Standard the government expects to reap “billions over the five-year period when all integrated resorts have been completed in the Entertainment City along the stretch of Manila Bay.” Soriano noted that the project will provide employment for 8,000 Filipinos, mostly from Parañaque, in keeping with a pledge from Okada to hire locals.
Under the terms of his licensing deal with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., the state-run regulator, the casino will start under a provisional license with a permanent license to be granted at a later stage.
Okada has said he wants to turn the Philippines into “the next Hawaii.”
“China, Beijing, the air is polluted and I feel there are people there who would want to get away, go to a fresh place and I think the Philippines would be one of the best tourist spots for everybody,” he told the South China Morning Post.
Okada has also said he’s considering operating resorts on the Philippine islands of Palawan and Boracay, both major tourist attractions, in a bid to tap the lucrative Chinese market.
According to the Manila Inquirer, the country hopes to post revenues of $7 billion by 2020, making it a gaming destination on par with Singapore and Las Vegas.
