Leisure and Resorts World Corp which should be, via a subsidiary, a Philippine partner in Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd’s casino project on that country’s holiday island of Boracay, says in a filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange it has no additional details to supplement media stories that the Philippine government has ordered all casinos to close on the island.
The Manila media had reported this week that the country’s casino regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), had been told to cancel all licences issued by it to run casinos on Boracay.
In March it was publicised that Galaxy Entertainment had a provisional gaming licence – conditional on the scheme going forward – for Boracay.
The island was due to reopen to the tourism market on Friday (October 26) after a circa six-month tourism ban, reportedly for an environmental clean-up.
Wednesday’s filing by Leisure and Resorts World followed a request from the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission to comment on a news story headlined “Pagcor told to void casino licences of Boracay resorts” posted on the Manila Times website on Wednesday. Leisure and Resorts World said it had “not received any further information”.
The news outlet website had stated that, on President Rodrigo Duterte’s orders, Pagcor head Andrea Domingo was asked in writing to cancel all licences to operate casinos on Boracay. The story quoted Environment Undersecretary Jonas Leones.
To ban casinos is consistent with the pronouncement of the president that there will be no casinos on Boracay,” the Manila Times quotes Mr Leones as saying.
Galaxy Entertainment intended to build a US$500-million casino resort on the island in partnership with a Leisure and Resorts World subsidiary, AB Leisure Exponent Inc.
As the local partner, Leisure and Resorts World would hold the 23-hectare (56.8-acre) beachfront site. Construction was scheduled for three years and would create “hundreds” of jobs, as well as being likely to bring in US$100 million annually in revenue, Francis Lui Yiu Tung, Galaxy Entertainment’s deputy chairman, was reported as saying earlier this year.
