No new gaming license until 2016, says Pagcor

MANILA, Philippines–New casino players seeking to enter the country will have to wait longer as regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) said it was unlikely to award new gaming licenses until President Aquino steps down in mid-2016.

Pagcor chair Cristino Naguiat Jr. said the direction was due to the fact that there were barely two years left in the Aquino administration, apart from the need for existing players to develop their business in a still-untested market.

The move is bad news for new players seeking to set up shop, like Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment Corp., and a boon to existing license holders like the four major operators in the Entertainment City casino complex along Manila Bay.

The four licenses, three of which went to Filipino tycoons and one to Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada, were awarded under the previous administration.

No new license has been granted under President Aquino.

“We only have one and half years left, so I think we should let the next administration decide,” Naguiat told the Inquirer in an interview.

“My personal feeling is we will not be issuing any new licenses until the end of the President’s term,” he said.

Naguiat noted that Pagcor was taking a long-term view in developing Entertainment City, which is being styled as a Philippine gaming hub that could compete with regional rivals like Macau and Singapore.

“We have to look at the big picture and definitely this is a long-term strategy,” he said.

The 120-hectare Entertainment City is ground zero for what the future of Philippine gaming would look like.

Currently, the only casino operating is the $1.2-billion Solaire Resort & Casino, owned by ports magnate Enrique Razon Jr., which opened in 2013.

This will be followed up this month by the City of Dreams Manila, a venture between Filipino retail and banking taipan Henry Sy Sr. and Macau’s Melco Crown Entertainment, led by billionaires Lawrence Ho and James Packer.

Okada’s group said its $2-billion Manila Bay Resorts would open by the end of 2015 while Bayshore City Resorts World, a venture between Filipino billionaire Andrew Tan and Malaysia’s Genting Group, plans to open its doors in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Recently, Caesars Entertainment, which is facing issues on its swelling debts, has approached President Aquino to possibly build a casino in a property near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, the country’s main gateway and its busiest airport.

For his part, Naguiat said he was never approached directly by Caesars, but he noted that it made sense for Pagcor to consider Asia-based operators like those located in Macau.

Due to its proximity to China, Macau is now the largest gaming market in the world with 2013 gambling revenues at $45 billion. That compares with over $6 billion pulled in by Las Vegas.