Op-ed by Bob Shead

Casino Philippines Open
Casino Philippines Online

Safe online casinos in the Philippines will offer a selection of verified payment methods for their users to choose between when making deposits and withdrawals. The top online casinos in the Philippines can accept payments by credit cards such as Visa or Mastercard, as well as the option for E-Wallets like PayPal, Sofort, Neteller and ecoPayz.

The Legality of Gambling in the Philippines In the Philippines, most forms of gambling are legal and strongly regulated. PAGCOR (the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) is the country’s government-owned department that focuses on managing the gambling sector. Of course, this organization operates a number of its land-based casinos. Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) operates most of casinos and slot machine clubs in the Philippines. Online Casino Laws in the Philippines. The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) was created under the Presidential Decree No.1869 from 1983.At the time, the decree set a monopoly to the state-owned company.

In the first part of this two-part article on the Philippine Gaming Industry, I will focus on the country’s casino industry. Together with the online gaming sector, which will be the focus of the second part of this article, the casino industry is of enormous importance to the Philippine economy, and is intricately linked to the country’s tourism industry. In this article, I will also identify possible investment opportunities in this rather complicated and sensitive industry.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) is the Philippine Government body, founded in 1976, that has the responsibility for governing the casino industry. PAGCOR is 100% owned by the Philippine government, and is a controlled corporation under the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines. The funds generated by PAGCOR augment the government’s budget for infrastructure and socio-civic projects.

Under its Charter, PAGCOR has a three pronged mandate:

Regulate, operate, authorize and license games of chance, games of cards and games of numbers, particularly casino gaming in the Philippines;
Generate revenues for the Philippine Government’s socio-civic and national development programs;
Help promote the Philippine tourism industry.

In June 20017, the following amendments were added to the PAGCOR Charter:

Allowed to enter into agreements, including joint ventures, with any person, firm, association or corporation;
Have a requirement to obtain consent of the local government authority, that has territorial jurisdiction over the area chosen as a site for any of PAGCOR’s operations;
Delimitation of regulatory authority and power over gaming activities covered by other existing franchises, regulatory bodies or special laws.

PAGCOR operates 13 casinos across the country, all located in in popular tourist destination areas:

METRO MANILA – Casino Filipino Midas, Casino Filipino Malate, Casino Filipino Pavilion.

LUZON – Casino Filipino Angeles, Casino Filipino Ilocos Norte, Casino Filipino Mimosa, Casino Filipino Olongapo, Casino Filipino Tagaytay.

VISAYAS & MINDANAO – Casino Filipino Bacolod, Casino Filipino Cebu, Casino Filipino Davao, Casino Filipino Iloilo, Casino Filipino Mactan.

However in 2008, the government of the day decided to open up the Philippine gambling market to international bidders, essentially removing PAGCOR’s monopoly of running its own casinos. PAGCOR still retains its Philippine government authority in regulating all casinos in the Philippines. This decision meant that the Philippines began to compete head to head with established gaming sites in Macau, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as Las Vegas and Australia. This led to a rapid rise of integrated casino/entertainment resorts in and around Manila, and has now resulted in the rapid development of areas such as Newport City, adjacent to Manila International Airport (NAIA), and the sprawling Entertainment City complex, which is part of reclaimed land in Manila Bay.

This decision, made in 2008, has been highly profitable to the Philippine Economy. For example, in the first nine months of 2016, the Philippine gaming industry was worth Peso118 billion (US$2.3 billion), in terms of Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR). In comparison, the GGR in 2012 was Peso56 billion (US$1.09 billion). The casino/entertainment complexes in Entertainment City have been, and will continue to be the main money makers and tourist draws for the foreseeable future. The investment bank, Credit Suisse has projected that the country’s gambling industry can earn gaming revenues of US$6 billion by 2018. This potentially will promote the Philippines into the top four gaming countries globally.

There are about 18 privately owned casinos currently operating in the Philippines, most are in Metro Manila. However Clark Airport (part of Angeles City) also hosts the following casinos – Fontana Resort, Royce Casino, Widus Resort and Midori Casino. Thunderbird Resorts Philippines also has two operations in North Luzon. However, casinos outside of Manila, account for only 327 gaming tables, or less than 18% of the 1,845 total as of September 2016. PAGCOR operated casinos have a combined 565 gaming tables, or equivalent to 31%. The vast majority of gaming tables are focused at Entertainment City, Manila.

The combined total investment costs in the Entertainment City gaming complex is estimated to be at least US$1 billion on facilities and are also required to follow a certain ratio of gaming tables to hotel rooms. These facilities and resorts then additionally attract not only gamblers but also high end tourists and business visitors who chose 5 star hotel accommodation with the related luxury lifestyle. These Manila based gaming establishments are also located close to Manila International Airport (NAIA) for ease of access, and avoiding the serious existing traffic issues.

Currently, there are four operational and integrated casino/entertainment complexes in Manila, of which three are in Entertainment City, and one in Newport City. The first one, with a four year head start, is Resorts World Manila, which is in Newport City. Resorts World Manila is located opposite Terminal 3 of Manila International Airport.

Filipinos and foreigners had the first taste of the four promised Las Vegas- or Macau-styled glitzy casinos in Entertainment City when Solaire Resort & Casino was launched. It is operated by Bloomberry Resorts Corporation.

Almost a year after, City of Dreams also opened to the public. The second mega casino in the Entertainment City gaming strip is operated by Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited in collaboration with the Philippines’ Belle Corporation. Melco Crown is a major Macau casino-resort operator.

The most recently opened Casino is Okada Manila, which, like Solaire, is next to the bay, offering its guests a view of the iconic Manila Bay sunset. In March this year, it unveiled a major attraction – the world’s biggest multicolour dancing fountain. It is operated by Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment Incorporated.

The fifth casino resort in Manila (and the last of the four in Entertainment City complex) is the Resorts World Bayshore. It is due to open in 2020. It will be the second integrated resort in Manila of Travellers International, which also operates Resorts World.

According to Fitch Ratings, the initial results of the first 3 casinos (Resorts World Manila, City of Dreams, and Solaire) are encouraging, relative to the size of the initial investment. But with increased competition in the industry, earlier developments have taken a hit. Various economic reports have said that the greater Manila market is showing signs of maturation with Resorts World Manila, the first privately-owned resort, currently showing a decline, due to the opening and operations of the newer resorts. However, it is expected that, driven by the opening of the US$2.4 billion Okada Manila Resort, a higher gross gaming revenue is forecast for 2017, along with the continued economic growth in the Philippines. Additionally, Credit Suisse has reported a decline in market share of gross gaming revenues from Resorts World Manila from 50% in 2012 to 19% by the end of this year. However, Credit Suisse have also predicted that Solaire Resorts will dominate the casino market share with 36% in 2017.

Latest data from PAGCOR showed junket-sourced VIP business makes up a third of the private casinos’ gross gaming revenue. VIP gamblers are foreign nationals flown into the Philippines by independent

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