Inside Asian Gaming

OCTOBER 2018 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 33 INSIGHTS the requirements in 2019. City of Dreams is also looking into … not another casino but expanding their casino operations in the same area. AWS: There will be four gaming operators in Entertainment City once Travellers International Hotel Group opens its IR in 2021. Will we see more operators in Entertainment City in the years to come? AD: I cannot tell because land is very limited there. Then there’s new in nearby areas. And if the President, or the next President, will lift the moratorium. I cannot foretell what will happen. AWS: At the moment there is some distance between each I really think there should be a critical mass in Entertainment City making the area more contiguous and each IR more accessible. I really believe that. property and they are not really connected in any way. Do you see the whole precinct coming together and being more connected in the future, similar to a Macau or Las Vegas Strip? AD: I wanted to do that, but the four original IRs there are very adamant in having, you know … they’re opposed to a fifth operator and they’re asking for the moratorium of five years for the industry to mature. And we’ve given them that, which means that there cannot be any casino operating – another casino operating – there until after February 2022 which is just about the end of the term of this administration. But I really think there should be a critical mass in Entertainment City making the area more contiguous and each IR more accessible. I really believe that. AWS: What about the PAGCOR properties. It was announced quite some time ago that they were to be sold. What’s the status of those sales? AD: Well, Solaire just bought the land where they are based because they had that option to purchase the land. Okada is now asking for them to increase their lease on the land that PAGCOR owns, but we still have a lot of properties in the Marina Bay area and the price has really ballooned. The value has also increased. But we are looking into it, whether we are going to develop that area or sell. We also have lots of properties in the Nayon Filipino area – we have 15 hectares there. But there’s a bit of a problem there Bloomberry Resorts recently purchased from PAGCOR the land on which its Manila IR, Solaire Resort & Casino, is located.