It’s back to the starting point for Kazuo Okada, controversial former business partner of Steve Wynn and CEO of Universal Entertainment Corp. The latter’s attempt to enter the Philippines casino market (left) fell apart along with a deal with Robinsons Land Corp. The latter was key to the project because Robinsons was supposed to buy a majority of Eagle I, an Okada front company, run through subsidiary Aruze USA. (Why is it that wherever Okada goes, trouble follows?) Aruze’s 64% stake in Eagle I was determined to be a ruse, a subterfuge to get around constitutional limits on overseas ownership of Philippine land.
Okada may still try to make the project work, going solo. But with Philippine Amusement & Gaming Corp. holding an adverse opinion of his legal standing, that looks like a long shot. And with two bribery investigations hanging over Universal, this is a helluva time for potential co-investors to get into bed with Okada.
Despite predictions to the contrary, it’s difficult to see Manila ever putting a serious hurt on Macao, where the average punter wagered $1.6 million per trip in March. (Of course, many of those players are far more than average.) Chinese President Xi Jinping is taking a laissez-faire attitude toward the casino enclave and business is responding accordingly. MGM China (+45%), Melco Crown Entertainment (+43%) and Galaxy Entertainment (+30%) have all seen the biggest hops in their stock price, although nobody’s crying into their beer. Galaxy, though, is doing particularly well off high-end play, considerably more so than MGM or Stanley Ho‘s rattletrap empire of casinos.
