Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte announced on Monday that all city government employees are banned from the upcoming Solaire Resort North casino. She said the government has worked with Bloomberry Resorts to design security measures to ensure that city government workers cannot participate in casino games. While city government employees can enter other facilities in the resort, such as hotels, restaurants and non-gaming entertainment venues, gambling is prohibited.
Bloomberry Resorts is investing $1 billion to open Solaire Resort North in northern Quezon City to expand its gaming operations in Manila. The new casino, scheduled to open later this month, will include a 38-story hotel and four-story casino with nearly 2,700 slot machines and 163 live dealer tables. Bloomberry aims to attract VIPs and wealthy customers in the north.
Belmonte revealed that the government has worked with Bloomberry to create an electronic database containing photos of all 19,000 city government employees to assist casino security in preventing excluded persons from entering. Even with wigs, masks or hats, sophisticated systems can still identify these people, she noted at the First International Conference on Responsible Gambling and Gambling Addiction. The conference, held at the Novotel Araneta in Quezon City and sponsored by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), was aimed at developing better responsible gambling safeguards.
Unlike some Asian countries that restrict residents from entering casinos, the Philippines has no such regulations. Gambling is deeply rooted in Filipino culture, but the expansion of legal gambling has raised concerns about the rise of problem gambling. Belmonte stressed that bringing together industry stakeholders, lawmakers, behavioral health experts and the public is to develop better responsible gambling safeguards.
In addition to Solaire Entertainment City and its soon-to-open Solaire North, Bloomberry also operates the Jeju Sunshine Hotel & Casino in South Korea. The company plans to acquire its Korean holding company but will not sell the boutique casino and hotel anytime soon. Gaming analysts expect Solaire North to account for 9% of Bloomberry's gross gaming revenue (GGR) in 2024 and more than 14% by 2025.
Bloomberry is controlled by Filipino billionaire Enrique Razon Jr., the driving force behind global ports and shipping giant International Container Terminal Services Inc. Forbes estimates Razon’s net worth at about $10.5 billion.