Inside Asian Gaming

March 2015 inside asian gaming 17 Feature Mocha Clubs slot parlors. Melco Crown became the Manila project’s operating partner in 2013 and that October rebranded the property as City of Dreams Manila after Philippine regulator Pagcor significantly raised its allocation of gaming tables and machines. “The success of City of Dreams Manila is a major milestone for Melco Crown Entertainment as we continue to expand our City of Dreams brand in Asian markets to meet the large and ever-growing number of leisure destination seekers across the region and internationally,” Melco Crown Co-Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho said. CoD Manila is the second property to open at the master-planned cluster of casino resorts at Manila Bay called Entertainment City. The first, Solaire Resort & Casino, controlled by Philippine ports magnate Enrique Razon, opened in March 2013. The other two, the upcoming Manila Bay Resorts and Resorts World Bayshore, are being developed by, respectively, Japanese pachinko mogul Kazuo Okada’s Universal Entertainment and Travellers International Hotel Group, the partnership between Genting Hong Kong and Philippine billionaire Andrew Tan’s Allied Global Group that owns Resorts World Manila. It was the financial success of the game-changing Resorts World Manila following its 2009 opening that paved the way for the new crop of integrated resorts now opening in the country. ENTERTAINMENT OPPORTUNITY “We’re as much an entertainment company as we are a gaming company,” Mr Ho said at the grand opening, and CoD Manila aims to prove it. The CenterPlay bar in the middle of the ground floor gaming area features local and international singers and dancers on its elevated, spectacularly lit stage that animates the casino experience. “You could not have this in Macau,” where players are less interested in entertainment than Manila, Melco Crown (Philippines) Resorts Chairman and President Clarence Chung said. The resort’s architecturally prominent Fortune Egg Dome houses two global nightclub brands, ultra-lounge Pangaea, also found at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, and nightclub Chaos. “Manila might not have been our first choice for our next club. But because City of Dreams was such an extraordinary project, it brought us here,” international nightclub developer Michael Van Cleef Ault said as champagne was served amid sparklers. “We are contemplating to bring in Dragone Group to do some kind of a cabaret show,” Mr Chung said. Dragone produced Taboo, a racy stage show playing at City of Dreams Macau’s Club Cubic. “That’s been well received in Macau, and we would like to do 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) is expected to be completed by the end of this month.