PH booming...

and Philippine billionaire Henry Sy, and a company founded by Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada.

Gross gaming revenue has boomed over the past year, up 27 percent in the year to August, Morgan Stanley said, due to robust demand for proxy betting via video streaming, strong visitor arrivals and a solid domestic market.

The government said this month it wants to start privatizing the casino assets of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) from next year. The state-run organization is presently both a regulator and operator of more than 40 casinos across the country.

Razon said Bloomberry would be interested in Pagcor's casinos in the provinces but said further details were needed to understand how any sale would work.

On foreign competition for the licenses, Razon said Bloomberry had the advantage of being already well established. "We are not the ones coming in creating the oversupply. It is tougher for the entrant... if Macau companies came to try to buy the licenses, we would try to compete with them to buy the licenses."

Industry analysts are waiting to assess the impact of the privatization but some expect more gambling venues. Ben Lee, managing partner at gaming consultancy IGamiX said the move would "create a whole lot of mini casinos all over the place and I expect that to increase."

Razon said competition inside Entertainment City was already strong and expected Okada's new property to ramp up further. The company is finalizing plans to build a smaller casino in Quezon city, located in Metro Manila, he said, which would mainly cater to the dense population in the area. Construction is expected to begin in the second half of next year.