Asian gaming market set to expand

Speakers said that, once the Singapore authorities comprehensively address the licensure of junket operators, it is anticipated that the junket market will have a major additional positive impact on the Singapore gaming market.

Most importantly, a major new destination gaming market is emerging in Asia – the Philippines. The state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) controls the licensing of all Philippine casinos as well as serving as one of two licensing entities for online gaming, with First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corporation serving as the other online gaming licensing entity.

PAGCOR is developing Entertainment City Manila, consisting of four integrated resort, recreation, and entertainment gaming facilities in response to the phenomenal success of gaming in Macau and Singapore. The consortium of Belle Corporation and Leisure & Resorts World Corporation has commenced building a Manila Bay gaming resort complex. In addition, PAGCOR has licensed four groups to implement its Entertainment City Manila project (Travellers International Hotel Group, the SM Consortium, Bloomsberry Investments, and Aruze Group).

The resorts being developed by Bloomsberry and the SM Consortium are commencing construction of their resorts, with projected openings of the first phases in 2014. All four developers of Entertainment City Manila are committed to invest a minimum of us$ 1 billion in their respective projects. When all four projects are completed, it is projected that they will have revenue-generating capacity approximately equal to Singaporean two gaming complexes.

There will be at least 3200 hotel rooms within the complex, with each resort focusing on a different theme. With strong connections to the United States (including both a large expat community and a strong US-based tourist market) as well as a strategic Asian market geographical location for attracting gaming business from Japan, Korea, and several Chinese provinces, the PAGCOR complex should become the third Asian gaming superstar. With excellent international airline connections to Manila, the Philippines is a true "destination" market.

Perhaps most importantly, the Manila integrated gaming resorts should be more diversified, including a variety of East Asian countries as well as the United States, which will be a substantive difference from the Macau gaming market that is heavily dependent on the Chinese mainland market, Chinese junket operators, and the mood of the Chinese government.

The expansion of gaming developments in other Southeast Asia gaming markets continues to be very much an "if come" environment. The largest potential market is Japan, but there appears to be little likelihood of any dramatic expansion of gaming there in the near term. Several other countries continue to consider various options (Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Taiwan, and Korea), but none of them have demonstrated any inclination towards a bold strategic strategy in developing integrated resort gaming on a scale that remotely approaches PAGCOR's strategic vision in the Philippines.