Plans more domestic casinos
Enrique Razon, head of Philippine gaming operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp. recently told CNBC his country’s casino industry could soon edge Singapore as the top gaming destination in Southeast Asia.
According to CalvinAyre.com, Razon credits his optimism to warmer relations between the Philippines and China; the growing Philippines gaming market; gaming policy changes instituted by President Rodrigo Duterte; and Duterte’s focus on improving the country’s infrastructure, among other factors.
“With more properties coming online, it should increase the size of the market,” Razon said. “I think medium- to long-term, everybody’s going to do great.”
Tourism from Mainland China is likely to increase thanks to Duterte’s outreach, Razon added. “Travel restrictions to the Philippines have been lifted by China after President Duterte’s visit in October 2016, so that’s helped generally in tourism coming into the Philippines,” he said.
Bloomberry operates Solaire Resort and Casino, the first integrated resort to open in Manila’s Entertainment City economic zone. The US$1.2-billion property, which debuted in 2013, has since been joined by Melco Crown’s City of Dreams Manila and Universal Entertainment’s Okada Manila, which will officially open this month.
In a January report, Fitch Ratings Inc. said it expects “high single-digit gross gaming revenues in 2017 driven by the opening of the US$2.4 billion Okada Manila and the continued economic growth in the Philippines.”
As for expansion, according to GGRAsia, Razon plans to have four casinos open within the next five to six years, including one in Quezon City that should be completed by 2019.
Gross gaming revenue in the Philippines for the first nine months of 2016 was PHP99.77 billion (US$1.99 billion), up 19.8 percent year-on-year. Casino resorts in Manila recorded overall GGR of PHP63.30 billion in the same time period, an increase of 21.2 percent compared to PHP52.23 billion year-on-year.
