‘Pro’ fleeces casino

Solaire Resorts and Casino—the country’s newest and trendiest gaming destination—was recently visited by a “pro” who walked out of the venue a few million pesos richer, according to our sources.

Okay, not just a few million. Maybe “a few hundreds of millions” is closer to the actual figure.

Biz Buzz learned that this player, who has the initials “JG,” entered Solaire one day and sat at one of the high roller baccarat tables, winning game after game after game.

Because he was a known high roller, we were told that the betting limit was even raised by the house just for him, from the usual P50,000 to P5 million per hand.

Not long after, JG—who hails from a city in the south—began a winning streak that grabbed the attention of other casino patrons, who decided to “go with the flow” and ride on his lucky streak.

“Basically, everyone just waited for him to place his bets on the baccarat table and they all followed suit,” said our source. “Ang daming nakisakay.”

And showing off the hallmark of a true casino professional, JG went on to play for 20 consecutive days (taking breaks for meals and sleep, of course).

According to our source, JG pulled off an unbelievable feat and beat the odds (which is normally stacked in favor of the house) and walked out of Solaire with a whopping net take of P130 million. That excludes, of course, the “tens of millions” won by other patrons who were in for the “free ride.”

(Another source said the gross amount at play, at its peak, was about P1.3 billion.)

However, an industry insider familiar with JG’s activities said that, while the casino pro made a ton of money in Solaire, he lost a sizable amount soon after while playing in Resorts World Manila.

“He’ll end up ‘returning’ that money, sooner or later,” said the insider, describing JG’s playing style.

Nonetheless, some questions remain: Was JG gambling with his own money? And how did he pull off such an improbable winning feat? Hmmm. Daxim L. Lucas

Coming soon: PNB Savings

If Bank of the Philippine Islands has BPI Family and Metrobank has PSBank, then “Kapitan” Lucio Tan-led Philippine National Bank is set to unveil a “PNB Savings Bank” soon.

Apparently, this is the intention behind PNB’s infusion of P10 billion in fresh equity into Allied Savings Bank, one of the subsidiaries inherited from the merger with Allied Bank.

Our sources say Allied Savings will be rebranded into a thrift bank that will carry the PNB brand.

The capital infusion is part of PNB’s strategy to grow the savings bank. The plan is to beef up the consumer loan book which will henceforth be the savings bank’s responsibility.

“We decided to follow the BPI/BPI Family Bank model where all consumer loans will be with the savings bank,” a source said.

At present, Allied Savings has a total stockholders’ equity of about P970.7 million. It has a balance sheet of about P10 billion, a loan book of about P2.58 billion and deposit liabilities of P9.55 billion.

Once regulatory approval is obtained, Allied Savings will be renamed PNB Savings with a “substantially bigger capital and consumer loan portfolio,” the source adds. Doris C. Dumlao

Stumbling block

What’s preventing the Philippine Stock Exchange from joining an integrated Southeast Asian trading linkage? Apparently, it has something to do with local securities restrictions adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“If for example, SingTel (Singapore Telecom) sold its securities here, will (the SEC) recognize it as a valid security? The answer is no, because the local SEC requires that for it to be a valid security, it has to be registered in the Philippines,” PSE president Hans Sicat says.

As such, Sicat says the PSE can’t join the Southeast Asian trading union unless SEC signs up on a mutual recognition scheme that would render as valid the onshore trades of foreign securities and vice versa. That means harmonizing rules with the corporate and securities regulator of Singapore, for instance.

Sans such mutual recognition, it’s seen as impractical for the PSE to join because trades on foreign securities won’t be recognized by local securities regulators.

Thus, while stock exchanges in the region can turn on the technology needed for a wider regional trading platform, Sicat says the regulatory frameworks also need to catch up. Doris C. Dumlao

Pain before driving pleasure

After what seemed like eternity, work on the long-delayed Daang Hari tollroad—the Aquino administration’s first Public-Private Partnership project—is finally set to start this year.

This is after the Ayala and San Miguel groups signed a few weeks ago the memorandum of agreement the would govern the linkage between the 4-kilometer tollroad and the South Luzon Expressway (which is controlled by San Miguel).

The deal was reached after all parties involved agreed to recognize the right of the SLEx operator to add extra lanes to Metro Manila’s main southern artery, as provided for under SLEx’s original design.

According to our source, the new design of the link between SLEx and Daang Hari (which will connect somewhere near the vicinity of Susana Heights calls for the Ayala road project to pass under SLEx, before emerging at the opposite side and connecting with SLEx’s northbound lanes.)

One contentious issue that was resolved recently was the speed at which vehicles on SLEx would be allowed to drive over the link’s excavation site. Ayala’s design would require vehicles to slow down to 60 kilometers per hour (likely to be slower, in practice)—a speed which San Miguel found to be too slow (slower vehicle throughput would mean traffic buildup and lower toll revenues).

Both parties finally agreed on a design that would allow vehicles to pass at a maximum of 80 kph. (Expect this to be slower in practice as construction will involve the closure of one side of SLEx at a time, requiring vehicles to be diverted to adjacent temporary lanes).

And while authorities hope the link would be finished by the end of 2014, our source tells us that the real construction period would be closer to 24 months.

So, assuming that that Ayala group already sees eye to eye with the real estate group of former Sen. Manuel Villar (which also had some objections to the Daang Hari design)—expect heavy vehicular traffic in the area to begin sometime in the first quarter of this year … and to last for up to two years. Daxim L. Lucas

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