Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING OCTOBER 2018 34 INSIGHTS with Philippine Airlines. We have lots of properties in Santa Rosa Laguna and in Tagaytay and we’re also looking at that. AWS: And the Casino Filipino properties there, how do you see their long-term future up against the integrated resorts of Entertainment City? AD: You know, they are holding up quite well. Last year they contributed Php22 billion to our Php60 billion earnings and this year we’re looking at about Php26 billion to Php27 billion. You know the reason why, there’s a certain cultural characteristic of the Filipinos, the “Suki” mentality – they’re so used to dealing with these people, the personalized service, the “hi, hello”, they know each other’s first names – those are what the IRs will never be able to take from PAGCOR. AWS: So you think there is a type of a player that likes that sort of local casino feel. AD: Well look, before there were IRs in Entertainment City in Paranaque, we had our presence in Binondo, we had our presence in Manila Bay and our GGR hasn’t diminished. In fact, every year we continue to grow by 5% to 8%. I was talking to one of the owners of the IRs and they said to me, “What if I just buy all of the PAGCOR stations and close them down?” I said, “The people won’t go to you. They’ll go to the illegal gambling stations because they feel more comfortable.”