Inside Asian Gaming

January 2015 inside asian gaming 15 Cover Story only space off the main floor, and VIP gaming areas. Nobu, Hyatt and Crown Towers hotels with a total of around 900 rooms are all due to open by mid-February. The Nobu restaurant, featuring chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s signature dishes, was doing a lively business on opening night. The Nobu Hotel in Manila will be the star-studded group’s first in Asia, after Las Vegas and Riyadh. Hyatt began registering guests during Christmas week. EVOLVING DREAM Melco Crown Entertainment operates the new resort, its first project outside Macau, where it owns the original City of Dreams resort, casino hotel Altira, Mocha Club slot parlors and expects to open Studio City Macau next year. Through a Philippine-listed subsidiary, the company jointly owns City of Dreams Manila with property developer Belle Corporation, part of the SM Group controlled by the family of the Philippines’ richest man, Henry Sy. In 2012, Melco Crown agreed to team with Belle on the casino side of the planned Belle Grand resort. “If we continued with our plan and built Belle Grand, it would have been five-star but not the unique facility we have now,” Mr Gana says. “No one in SM Group ever operated a casino. That’s what Melco Crown brings to the table.” In October 2013, Philippine regulator Pagcor revised its formula to determine the number of gaming tables and machines permitted “Quite simply, City of Dreams brings nearly a decade of Macau gaming know-how to a market that needs more international operators to set up shop in order to raise the profile of Philippines as a gaming destination,” Union Gaming Research Macau Managing Partner Grant Govertsen says. in licensed resorts based on hotel room count and room area, giving credit for lodging quality as well as quantity. The Belle-Melco Crown resort’s allotment jumped from 242 tables and a combined 1,450 slot machines and electronic table games to 374 tables, 1,695 slots and 1,695 e-tables. The change prompted Melco Crown to rebrand the resort as City of Dreams Manila, up the partnership’s combined investment to about $1.3 billion and take over operations. “Quite simply, City of Dreams brings nearly a decade of Macau gaming know-how to a market that needs more international The sneak preview attracted an estimated 13,000 people to the resort with the slogan “Where everything is above all else.”