A new boutique casino has opened at Subic Bay Yacht Club, in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in the Philippines. The casino is a central feature of the Yacht Club, which recently completed a PHP500 million (US$10 million) renovation and hopes to attract more members of the yachting and boating community.
“Subic is a safe haven in the boating world, and we have mega-yachts coming in on a weekly and monthly basis to use Subic Bay as their base,” said Manuel Antonio Sequeira, CEO and president of Volare Grandezza, a partner firm in the property’s casino operations.
“We have everything from Russian mega-yachts measuring 200 meters and above to mega-ships coming in from China—the smallest being 3,800 people and the biggest 5,200 guests, which is a huge market.
“So we saw an opportunity that this Yacht Club would be a great base to host a casino. We are positioning ourselves very much as a boutique casino, and we are only the second yacht club in the world to have a casino after Hobart (Australia),” he said.
The new casino marked its soft opening last week with eight table games and 169 slot machines. It expects to have 43 gaming tables in operation by December, offering roulette, pai gow, baccarat, blackjack and pontoon, reported Inside Asian Gaming.
In-house junket operations will launch in January 2020.
“The growing market in Asia of people boating, yachting, will bring people here,” Sequeira told IAG. “The fishing here is fantastic and just 20 minutes out by boat out we have coves which you will drool over with pristine sands, unreachable by road, a 2km beach with nobody else around and clear, clean water. It’s something we can produce that nobody else can.”
