Macau, at the foot of the giant, dumped Las Vegas in 2006 to leapfrog the world's top gambling city.
Across the Pacific Ocean from the ends of the earth, there's a thousand-island state that looks up to the mainland and covets the Hao River.
In the years to come, it quietly developed into the biggest spinach paradise in Asia outside of Macau.
Macau's gaming revenues peaked in 2013, then suddenly slumped and wavered on the road to recovery.
Meanwhile, major players began to turn around and swing thousands of miles away to the new paradise of
Once again sitting at a poker table stirring up the storm, the Philippines, the Land of a Thousand Islands ......
First, why has the Philippines become the emerging colosseum for betting predators?
The Philippines has its natural advantages over Macau.
Macao is small and densely populated, and its space for development is constrained by geography, with fewer entertainment elements other than gaming.
The Philippines, on the other hand, has a long coastline, silver beaches, coconut rain, beautiful scenery, many islands, a vast sea border is unique.
Against other countries in Southeast Asia, the Philippines is closer to the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, and has a legal backdoor.
500 years ago, the Filipinos, there is a cockfighting tradition, folk betting style is quite prevalent, came to colonize the Spanish and the Americans wanted to ban were unsuccessful, simply opened up the green light, by the way, fishing for oil, in 1977 the Philippines big boss Ferdinand Marcos signed a presidential decree establishing the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), is responsible for the issuance of gambling licenses, management of the gaming industry, the government backed, the first to get legalized among Southeast Asian countries, the rise of Internet gambling, PAGCOR also added online licenses. With the backing of the government, Philippine gaming was the first to be legalized in Southeast Asia, and after the rise of Internet gaming, PAGCOR also added an online license.
In 2014, Macau's gaming revenue was reported to be down for the first time, and the big players, who smelled the wind in advance, have pre-empted the layout in the Philippines - after all, no industry can thrive in one place for long, and opening new venues is in itself preparing for the back roads.
A long way to the red East Las Vegas appeared shock, the Philippines quietly rose to spinach paradise. Last year, the Philippines gaming revenue exceeded one-third of Macau's, but 70% of it was divided by the capital city of Manila's four major casinos, and the rest of the numerous small casinos and online gaming, are small fish and shrimp in the gaming river and lake.
Those who are qualified to sit at the poker table and turn the tables are these four: Genting World, Morningside Resort, City of Dreams and Okada Manila.
What is the story behind these four predators?
II. Genting World
Malaysian gaming giant Genting jumped on the bandwagon with the opening of the Philippines' first large-scale integrated casino, Resorts World Manila, in 2009.
When it comes to Genting, we have to mention the founder of Genting and the King of Gamblers in Malaysia, Lam Ng Tong.
Lin Wutong, born in 1918 in Anxi, Fujian Province, a tea village, his father died early at the age of 16, Lin Wutong, as the oldest male child, took over the burden of supporting the family, borrowed money to sell vegetable seeds for two years, to pay off the foreign debt left by his father, at the age of 19 dragged a small suitcase and all the belongings of the family to go to the South Seas, worked as a carpenter, planted vegetables, sold tea and oil of all trades, earned his first bucket of gold by refurbishing second-hand machinery, and then into the mining and construction industry, for He made his first fortune refurbishing second-hand machinery, then entered the mining and building trades, and became famous for completing a project that the British could not handle.
In 1964 Lin Wu-tung had a whim to build a world-class tourist resort in Malaysia's deep mountain plateau, seven years after the rise of Resorts World Genting, which Genting Casino is Malaysia's only, Asia's largest, the world's second casino, Lin Wu-tung thus rose to become a gaming tycoon, and Stanley Ho, Yip Hon, Tin Paradise, and is known as Asia's top four gambling kings.
In 1993, Lam Wutong entered the world of high seas gambling and developed his company, Star Cruises, into one of the top three cruise empires in the world.
The construction of Genting World Philippines is directly related to Lin Wutong's defeat in Macau. 2003, Genting's bid for a gambling license in Macau was unsuccessful, and Lin Wutong, deeply concerned about his age, handed over the baton to his son, Lam Kwok Tai, on the last day of the year.
Three years later, Genting took Singapore's second gambling license, Sentosa, acquired Britain's largest casino, Stanley, and set its sights on the emerging hotspot of the Philippines, where it threw $1.5 billion in 2009 to complete Genting World Manila.
This time, Lam Kwok Tai absorbed the lessons from his Macau loss and sought out a powerful local partner, Filipino tycoon and chairman of the Anderson Group, Ng Cong Man.
Born in Jinjiang, Fujian Province in 1952, Mr. Wu moved to Hong Kong at the age of 4 and then to Manila's Chinatown at the age of 16. He started his career as a brandy maker and made his first bucket of money at the age of 27. Later, he entered into the real estate and fast food business and developed into the country's second largest property company and the agent of McDonald's in the Philippines, and he is a frequent visitor to the top of the Philippine rich list and is very energetic in politics and business.
Genting World Philippines is operated by Travellers International Hotel Group, a joint venture between Genting and Alliance Global.
III. Morning Glory Resort
The Morningside Resort, also known as Sun City or Solaire Resort & Casino, is the second major casino complex after Genting World, and opened in March 2013, the same day President Aquino III himself was there.
With an investment of more than $1.2 billion, Chennai is operated by Bloomberry Resorts Corp, a homegrown Filipino company, whose chairman, Enrique Razon, is a third-generation Hispanic Filipino (worth $4.3 billion, and a Forbes Filipino billionaire scout).
Razon's grandfather came to Manila in the early 1900s to develop the port, and in the hands of Razon's father, he completed the initial buildup and rose to become a wharf mogul, with Razon taking over the reins and expanding the family business into a global port giant. On the eve of the gaming giants' shift to the Philippines, Razon built the first casino hotel in Manila's Bay Area, the Morningside Resort.
IV. City of Dreams
City of Dreams, also known as City of Dreams, opened in late 2014 and was developed by Macau's biggest gaming player Melco Bursa in conjunction with the family of the Philippines' richest man, Sze Chi Seng.
As we all know, Stanley Ho's son, Lawrence Ho, is the chairman of Melco Bursa. In '04, 27-year-old Lawrence Ho teamed up with Australian second-generation tycoon James Parker to set up Melco Bursa, and two years later, Macau's King of Gamblers, Stanley Ho, played his spare time to help Melco Bursa take down the Wynn's sideboard for $900 million, and went to the table to be the last player on Macau's six gambling cards.
Speaking of which, James Parker, Lawrence Ho's partner and 30% shareholder in MelcoBoya, is also a legend. Born in 1967, Parker is now the president of Crown Resorts Australia and owns 40% of Crown. Parker's father was a media mogul, and as the former richest man in Australia, his father didn't believe in university education, worrying that it would turn his son into a routine waste of time. After graduating from high school, he was sent to work on a cattle ranch to undergo the trials and tribulations of the real world, and after a few years, Parker became an adventurous, tough businessman, so aggressive that his father feared that his own media empire would be crushed by his son.
Parker had teamed up with his junior partner, media giant Murdoch's eldest son, Laren, to invest in a company, which collapsed a year later, directly implicating Laren in his succession.
Parker is not interested in media, he is more passionate about casinos. After taking over, he sold the family's media industry and bought the Crown Casino in Australia, riding the wave of the global gaming industry and rising as Australia's new gambling king. Perennial on the Australian rich list of Parker, or the United States diva Mariah Carey's ex-boyfriend, Hollywood star Tom Cruise's good friend, but also an uncompromising playboy, often due to gossip small material on the entertainment headlines.
MelcoBoya's local partner is none other than Shi Zhicheng, the richest man in the Philippines. Born in 1924 in Jinjiang, Fujian Province, Mr. Sze immigrated to the Philippines with his father at a young age and opened a small store in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. Shi Zhicheng by selling shoes from New York to the Philippines to start, and later became the king of retail in the Philippines, its seven listed companies, business in shopping malls, entertainment, banking, real estate and other fields, in 2008 jumped to the richest man in the Philippines, and since then for a long time until the death of the richest man, worth more than 10 billion U.S. dollars.
The Sze Chi Shing family's Belle Group is the developer of City of Dreams, while Melco Burson-Marsteller is the operator of City of Dreams.
V. Okada Manila
In late '16, Okada Manila began operating as a casino with an investor, Japan's Universal Entertainment, which is owned by a man named Kazuo Okada, who has an intriguing feud with gaming mogul and Wynn owner Steve Wynn.
Born in 1942 in Osaka, Japan, Kazuo Okada is the 16th richest entertainment tycoon in Japan. Early years to the United States to repair old-fashioned television sets, radios to make a living, and later sell second-hand appliances in Japan to earn the first bucket of gold. 70 years in the United States to engage in the street coin-operated game machines, the production of casinos special gaming machines to make a fortune, the 90's returned to Japan to become a pachinko mogul, in 2000, Kazuo Okada injected 260 million U.S. dollars in the Wynn, Wynn boss Steve Wynn partner, Steve Wynn once called each other is his best friend. After the opening of Macau's gambling licenses, the two teamed up to take one of them, and the Wynn Resort opened in '06 and has continued to expand and contribute 70% of Wynn's revenues in the days to come.
At that time, Kazuo Okada was a director of Wynn holding 20%, and Steve Wynn was the president of Wynn holding 10%. Thereafter, the two parties disagreed over whether they wanted to develop in the Philippines, and in the end, Steve Wynn won and acquired Kazuo Okada's shares at a 70% discount, and hired the other party out of Wynn.
Since then, Kazuo Okada has shifted the battlefield to the Philippines, investing more than $2 billion to build the Okada Manila Resort. In recent years, however, Kazuo Okada has been in a lot of trouble. First, he was kicked out of Universal Entertainment, the company he founded, for embezzlement, and then he was involved in a dispute with his son over his shareholding and property.
In addition to the four major players, a few fierce players in Macau have also made moves in the Philippines. Two years ago, Macau's "King of Small Gamblers" Wah Mee Wah's Sun City was rumored to be developing Manila's gaming properties with local enterprises; previously, "Asia's New King of Gamblers" Lam Ying Lok had invested a huge amount of money to buy Clark Resort City to develop gaming business, but due to the policy changes and the impact of the epidemic, the situation of Wah Mee Wah and Lam Ying Lok is still far worse than the above four players. However, due to policy changes and the impact of the epidemic, the situation of the two players is still far worse than that of the four players mentioned above.
However, no one can predict the future development, will there be new forces, stir up the Philippine gaming rivers and lakes, spinach paradise tomorrow, the answer is still to be left to time.
