Gaming firms expand outside Entertainment City

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine gaming industry continues to expand outside the 100-hectare Entertainment City, which is already showing signs of maturation with more players filling up the gaming scene in the Las Vegas-style complex of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).

MJC Investments Corp., a joint venture between the Reynos’ Manila Jockey Club and a group of Hong Kong strategic investors, has formally opened Winford Hotel & Casino, a hotel, gaming and entertainment project within Manila’s Greater Chinatown in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

Specifically, the new casino is right in the heart of the former San Lazaro racetrack, which has now been converted into the San Lazaro Tourism and Business Park which is now home to a high-end residential condominium project jointly developed by Ayala Land Inc. and MJC as well as SM San Lazaro mall.

The hotel consists of 128 internationally designed deluxe hotel rooms with a grand ballroom, swimming pool, gym and spa, coffee shop and dining area, retail outlets, and a seven-level parking structure, among other amenities and services.

Within the hotel is a casino, which is a three-level entertainment and gaming area with a capacity of 600 slot machines and 110 gaming tables.

MJC chairman and chief executive officer Alfonso Reyno, Jr. led the opening ceremonies last Friday. Former president and now Manila City Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada graced the occasion, as well as other key officials such as presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo, Pagcor chairman Andrea Domingo and Tourism Undersecretary Falconi Millar.

The new casino provides an alternative destination for gamblers from Sta. Cruz and Balintawak who do not want to play at the 100-hectare Entertainment City which hosts Solaire Resort & Casino, the City of Dreams and Okada Manila.

The Reyno family is behind Southeast Asia’s oldest horse racing operator Manila Jockey Club, which was granted a congressional franchise to operate and maintain a racetrack and conduct horse races. The company is also engaged in the development and sale of condominium units and residential properties, and lease of an office building through joint venture agreements with property developers.

MJC also ventured into gaming operations with the establishment of a casino known as the Pagcor Club San Lazaro located at the 3rd floor of the Turf Club Building at the San Lazaro Leisure Park in Carmona, Cavite.

At present, the company conducts its races two days every week on an alternating schedule with the other racing clubs, according to its website.

Aside from Winford Hotel, there are other projects in the pipeline outside Pagcor City.

Enrique Razon’s Solaire Resort and Casino, for instance, is building a P20-billion resort in Quezon City, his second casino after the Entertainment City.

In Pampanga, South Korean construction firm Donggwang Construction Co. Ltd., is developing the $400 million Clark SunValley Resorts and Country Club project at the Clark Freeport Zone.

In the southern Philippines in Cebu, Calata Corp. will put up a casino project.

The company teamed up with American firms Sino-America Gaming Investment Group LLC (Sino-America) and Macau Resources Group Ltd. to create a real estate and investment trust for a proposed P65-billion gaming resort in Mactan.