Wynn Win for Pagcor E-City

You’ll know that the Pagcor dream of creating a Las Vegas on Manila Bay will come closer to reality when one of the Big Boys actually signs a contract or joint-venture agreement with the state gambling monopoly. For the optimists, there’s recent news that Wynn Resorts, Ltd. (annual sales: US$1.4 billion and market cap of US10.3 billion) is interested. Given the Pagcor E-City’s ambitions, only those in the billion bracket (dollars, not pesos) can undertake this. But right now, it’s all just talk-talk, in contrast to Macau where it’s build-build-build.

Tim Shiah, a representative of Jack Binion of Wynn Resorts, said the company is “committed to look at all opportunities in the Philippines.” Jack Binion runs the international operations of the hotel casino chain, the first of which was Wynn Macau.“Wynn Macau is actually looking into the Philippines. Jack Binion is director of Wynn International that’s why he’s been down here for the last couple of years and they’re looking [around],” Shiah said at the Asia Gaming and Entertainment Expo briefing.“You know the biggest asset in the Philippines—and I can’t preach this loud enough—is the people here, the workforce,” he added.Hotel chain owner Steve Wynn and Binion had talked about duplicating Wynn Macau in the country, Shiah said, adding that the renewal of the license and eventual amendment to the charter of Pagcor would make it easier for the group to enter the local gaming scene.

Shooting Horses

Some people went to a great extent to place dart guns at Hong Kong’s Happy Valley Racecourse, apparently aimed at the horses. The NYTimes is calling it a mystery; everyone else thinks it’s just another plot by gamblers to make the odds go their way.  

A remote-controlled mechanism with a dozen launching tubes was found buried in the turf at Hong Kong’s most famous horse racing track last week; it was rigged with compressed air to fire tiny, liquid-filled darts into the bellies of horses at the starting gate. . . .

Police officials refused to discuss the device found at Happy Valley, except to say that it was under investigation. One popular theory is that gamblers installed it in an attempt to fix the outcome of races.

The liquid in the darts was being analyzed at a laboratory to determine whether it was a tranquilizer, poison or something else entirely. A long trench was dug underneath where the starting gate stands during a race, and the footlong launching tubes were placed in the trench and concealed under the locations where each horse would stand at the beginning of a race.

Donald Tsang, who was re-elected Sunday as the chief executive of Hong Kong, said in an interview that he believed gamblers were responsible.