Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming April 2015 15 Insights IAG : Entertainment City now has two integrated resorts open. Do Solaire and City of Dreams Manila live up to Pagcor’s expectations? Mr Naguiat : Definitely. It gets better and better. If you compare it with what we had 10 years ago, these are totally different establishments. They are integrated resorts. That was part of our terms of reference since the project started in 2009. They have to have a certain number of rooms. They have to have a specific percentage of gaming and non-gaming. I know it’s like asking a parent if they have a favorite child, but do you like one of these two resorts better than the other? They’ll be catering to two different markets. City of Dreams has its own markets. Your guess is as good as mine if you try to answer which one is better. I think they’ve both exceeded our expectations. First we had Resorts World Manila introducing the concept of integrated resorts as they did in Singapore. Solaire raised the bar. City of Dreams has tried to go a step further. They’re spending a lot of money promoting City of Dreams. They’ve got lots of advertisements on television. Of course, whatever City of Dreams does will have a trickle down effect on the rest of the market. It’s not a standalone property. It has the Crown Towers, it has the Nobu Hotel, it has the Hyatt. It has DreamPlay. also distributes revenue to a variety of individual public entities, including the local governments of cities hosting its casinos, the National Endowment for Culture and the Arts, and the Dangerous Drugs Board. Despite the erosion of its market share with the opening of licensees’ integrated resorts in Manila, Pagcor has produced more revenue for the government as the gaming market has grown. In 2008, before Resorts World Manila opened as the first major independently operated licensee in the Philippines, Pagcor had a 65% share of a P40.5 billion casino gaming market, its total revenue was P29.6 billion and payments to the government were P15.2 billion. In 2012, with RWM operating but before the opening of Solaire as the first Entertainment City casino resort, the country’s gross gaming revenue had grown to PH75.7 billion, Pagcor’s share had shrunk to 41%, its revenue had increased to P40.9 billion and payments to the government were P19.6 billion. Though Entertainment City was conceived under Mr Naguiat’s predecessors, his administration has made it a reality. In February, City of Dreams Manila held its grand opening as the second resort in Entertainment City. And it has Solaire down the street. It’s a destination. What’s the impact of having Melco Crown as an operator in this market? It’s a big plus factor for Entertainment City. Melco Crown brings its networking from Macau, its connections with junkets in Macau. We have Solaire, which is a local company, and we have City of Dreams from Macau. There’s efficiency in its preparations to tap into that market. City of Dreams gives us a direct line into Macau. What are the challenges ahead for completing the development of Entertainment City? These are highly capital-intensive projects, over $1 billion each. Up to this point, the developers have been able to finance their Casino Filipino Davao in Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines.