The opening of the West Side City Resorts World casino in Manila’s Entertainment City gaming zone could be delayed by as long as two years, according to the project’s joint venture partners.
On Friday, The Standard quoted Travellers International Hotel Group president Kingson Sian saying the project in Manila’s Entertainment City gaming zone might not open until 2020 or 2021, a significant delay on the project’s previous target of 2019.
Travellers International is a joint venture between Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global Group and Malaysia’s Genting conglomerate. The partners already operate the Resorts World Manila casino outside the Entertainment City zone.
One week ago, Travellers held its annual shareholder meeting, at which Sian claimed the company was still “tweaking” the project’s design “so that we offer something that is quite unique not only there but also in relation to Resorts World Manila. So we don’t repeat the same offering.”
This is the second delay the project has endured, having originally targeted a 2018 completion date (back when it was known as Resorts World Bayshore).
It remains to be seen whether the delay will prompt the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) to impose a financial penalty on Travellers. Last summer, PAGCOR issued a $2.2m fine on Tiger Resorts Leisure and Entertainment for repeated delays on that company’s Entertainment City project Manila Bay Resorts, which is set to open later this year.
MANILA CASINO REVENUE SPIKES
Meanwhile, the two Entertainment City properties that are currently open for business – Bloomberry Resorts’ Solaire Resort & Casino and Melco Crown Entertainment’s City of Dreams Manila – saw their gross gaming revenue surge 69% in the month of April, according to brokerage Maybank ATR Kim Eng Securities.
April’s spike is a dramatic uptick from the 6.6% year-on-year revenue rise the two casinos reported in the first three months of 2016. Maybank suggested that Studio City Manila was responsible for most of the progress, as the property had yet to ramp up its marketing efforts in April 2015.
