Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming March 2015 16 Feature City of Dreams Manila’s grand opening marks milestones for Entertainment City and Melco Crown. The question now is: Will the resort’s Macau connection boost Philippine gaming? By Muhammad Cohen Macau Comes to Manila F or its opening night concert, City of Dreams Manila brought in international stars Ne-Yo and Kelly Rowland. Industry observers are anxious to see how many more international players the US$1.3 billion CoD Manila will bring to the Philippine capital’s Entertainment City district. They’ll probably need to be patient. During the 2nd February grand opening, more than 30,000 people visited CoDManila, jointly owned by Melco Crown Entertainment and Belle Corporation, part of the SMGroup controlled by the Philippines’ richest man, Henry Sy, and family. That crowd represented double the average footfall during the resort’s six week sneak preview that kicked off 14th December with the 170 gaming tables and 1,700 machines on a two-level main gaming floor plus a handful of food and beverage options including Nobu, the star-studded modern Japanese restaurant. The Signature Club, a spacious and richly appointed private premium-mass area with 34 tables and 108 machines plus a comfortable lounge, also opened during the preview period. For the grand opening, Retail Avenue, which adjoins the upper level of the gaming floor, had about half of its 15 boutiques open along with seven F&B outlets. The rest of the retail offering is expected to be completed by the end of this month, along with the world’s first DreamPlay interactive theme park, inspired by DreamWorks Animation movies and employing RFID technology to rate and track participants (so parents can leave the kids there). City of Dreams Manila, sheathed in gold with six towers on a 6.2 hectare site, is Melco Crown’s first venture outside Macau, where it operates the original City of Dreams, Altira hotel-casino and chain of Melco Crown Entertainment Co-Chairmen Lawrence Ho and James Packer