New gaming jurisdiction in the Philippines
The Pacific Seaboard Leisure and Entertainment Corp created a new gaming jurisdiction within the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority.
The Philippines.- The Pacific Seaboard Leisure and Entertainment Corp announced the creation of a new gaming jurisdiction within the 12,500-hectare of the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO) in the north-eastern part of the country’s main island Luzon.
The zone is eight hours by road from Manila and 277 and 172 miles from the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA). The new gaming jurisdiction is located in Casiguran in Aurora province, which is an economically underdeveloped part of Luzon. Casiguran was being promoted during Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia held in Macau.
“We thought of initially starting with online gaming, because it’s easier to set up. And then later on we’ll go into land-based casinos,” said Victor Lazatin, president and chief executive of Pacific Seaboard Leisure and Entertainment Corp.
Pacific Seaboard explained that applications for gaming licences should be directly filed to Pacific Seaboard, which will be in charge of screening the applicants and handling the financial and legal aspects of applications. Decisions on issuance of gaming licenses will be decided jointly by the Pacific Seaboard and APECO. In addition, APECO will charge US$40,000 annually to license interactive gaming. The same costs will apply regarding a licence for Internet casino operations or for a studio-based live video streaming service featuring live-dealer table games. There will also be a “gaming levy” of 2 percent of licensees’ gross win per month, or a US$5,000-minimum levy per table per month, whichever is higher will be applied.
“The land-based casinos [are] going to be part of the ecotourism development of APECO. So we will go hand in hand [with Pacific Seaboard] in promoting that,” said Israel Maducdoc, APECO’s president and chief executive. “We’ve already been talking to a few locators [investors] that are interested in setting up some hotels and casinos there,” he added.
