{"id":26390,"date":"2022-01-19T09:52:06","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T12:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=26390"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:07:11","slug":"pagcors-new-opol-casino-shuts-its-doors-until-january-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcors-new-opol-casino-shuts-its-doors-until-january-31","title":{"rendered":"PAGCOR&#8217;s new Opol casino shuts its doors until January 31"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Grand Imperial Casino has closed due to Covid-19 countermeasures, but opponents of the venue are calling on authorities not to allow it to reopen unless certain requirements are met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- The Grand Imperial Casino has closed its doors but not for the reasons put forward by\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-two-christian-groups-join-forces-against-casino-in-opol\">opponents of the new venue.<\/a> The PAGCOR casino, which opened in Barangay Taboc in December has temporarily closed due to\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-philippines-expands-level-3-covid-19-restrictions\">Covid-19 countermeasures<\/a>. It expects to <strong>resume operations next month\u00a0<\/strong>despite opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this month, the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro published\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-catholic-archbishop-against-new-casino-in-opol\">an open letter against the casino venue<\/a>,\u00a0while members of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) also expressed their opposition against the casino complex. The leaders of the two religious groups said they would start\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-two-christian-groups-join-forces-against-casino-in-opol\">a signature campaign against the casino<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Catholic layman told Rappler that despite the temporary shut down,\u00a0opponents will continue their efforts &#8220;so that the casino will not operate ever.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During an inquiry last week,\u00a0<strong>the Misamis Oriental provincial board<\/strong> revealed the casino had been operating\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/opol-casino-found-to-be-operating-without-a-business-permit\">without a business permit<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Grand Imperial Casino has closed due to Covid-19 countermeasures, but opponents of the venue are calling on authorities not to allow it to reopen unless certain requirements are met.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Grand Imperial Casino in the Philippines has temporarily ceased operations due to COVID-19 countermeasures, though it anticipates reopening next month. This closure coincides with significant religious opposition and revelations that the PAGCOR-regulated venue was operating without a requisite business permit, raising substantial regulatory compliance concerns.","focusai_entities":"Grand Imperial Casino, PAGCOR, Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, Iglesia Filipina Independiente, Rappler","focusai_location":"Philippines, Barangay Taboc, Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.85), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR Oversight Efficacy?","query":"What specific actions will PAGCOR undertake to address the Grand Imperial Casino's operation without a business permit, and what implications does this have for its broader regulatory oversight framework?"},{"label":"Operational Viability Post-Opposition?","query":"Given the significant religious and community opposition, what governance frameworks and stakeholder engagement strategies will the Grand Imperial Casino implement to secure its social license to operate long-term?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,158,16333],"tags":[23907],"class_list":["post-26390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26390"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26400,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26390\/revisions\/26400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}