Alvin Chau, the CEO of Suncity Group Holdings, was taken into custody this weekend after a warrant for his arrest was issued in the Chinese city of Wenzhou on Friday. Suncity is Macau’s largest junket operator, and China’s main complaint against the 47-year-old Chau is as basic and nebulous as you’d expect: money laundering. However, … Read more
The Philippines casino market is officially recovering. And no, we’re not talking about the country’s new iGaming initiatives, designed to stem the tide of coronavirus-related PAGCOR losses. After all, those will slowly work their way into the fabric of society, much like the best offshore Philippine casinos, online sports betting sites, and PH poker rooms … Read more
Slowly but surely, the land-based Philippine casino industry is opening back up. After suffering through more extended lockdowns (albeit not to the extent that they were closed during 2020), major Philippine IRs are now welcoming back in-person patrons. While the biggest operators had rolled out legal online iGaming to a limited clientele (rendering them largely … Read more
It’s no secret that the Philippines has big plans for Boracay, with the gambling moratorium recently lifted and construction moving apace on new destination casino properties. However, the pushback – both locally and internationally – has been incredible. In Boracay itself, there are environmental concerns as well as a concerted religious opposition to the initiative, … Read more
As in 2020, the coronavirus lockdowns in the Philippines have put a serious hurting on domestic casino revenues. That said, because the nation learned from the pandemic’s economic impact over the last 18 months, the financial downturn prompted by this year’s Metro Manila lockdowns has been markedly less dramatic. Last year, revenues compared year-over-year were … Read more
After a tumultuous 2020 that saw the Philippines casino industry brought to its knees, the first half of 2021 saw a return to normalcy for the nation’s brick-and-mortar gambling market. But lessons learned during the pandemic – particularly re online casino gambling and sports betting and why both need to be conveniently accessible to combat … Read more
For the domestic gambling industry, it’s been an interesting couple of weeks in the Philippines. There are three major stories of note concerning the gaming landscape in the island nation, with some good news and some bad news. The Good Starting off with the good news, PAGCOR – the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation – … Read more
For the last several months, tensions have flared between China and the Philippines, with the former asking the latter to halt its online casino industry. Calls from inside the Philippines also supported a groundswell of change to the Filipino gambling community, with various lawmakers seeking to privatize and tax state-owned casinos. While neither initiative seems … Read more
The discussion to end gaming in the Philippines has been long but we may finally see the result of these talks. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has expressed ending the development of more casino resorts following his instructions given to PAGCOR to crack down on illegal gambling and switch gears from operator to becoming solely a … Read more
For 2018, state-owned casinos have reportedly earned $1.3b last year to end the year with an 18% increase from 2017. The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) currently operates eight casinos and 34 satellite gaming outlets. PAGCOR is also the sole regulator for most of the Philippines excluding the Cagayan Special Economic Zone which services … Read more