UEC: No improper conduct in PAGCOR casino project

Universal Entertainment Corporation (UEC) insists there were no improprieties in it getting a provisional license for a Philippine casino project through subsidiary Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment, Inc. (Tiger).

In an e-mailed statement, Scott Scherer, lawyer for Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada's UEC, reiterated that the provisional license granted by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) to UEC, was similar to those given to other licensees in PAGCOR's Entertainment City Manila project.

“The Provisional License issued to Tiger Resorts by Pagcor, has substantially the same terms and conditions issued to other licensees," he said.

"Hence, there would be no basis to allegations that improper payments were made to obtain preferential treatment," he said.

The allegations of bribery were made public by Steve Wynn, CEO of former UEC partner Wynn Resorts Ltd. in February 2012, who supposedly investigated and found Okada offered gifts and entertainment to officials in the Philippines and South Korea.

Universal filed the civil defamation case after Wynn published its investigation into Okada in February 2012, alleging his company improperly offered gifts and entertainment to gaming officials in South Korea and the Philippines.

Okada filed a defamation case against Wynn in Japan over the allegations.

Scherer said Friday that PAGCOR specified that the casino project would obtain the necessary approval required under Philippine law and available to potential licensees so there was no need for the company to seek special treatment.

He also said that the project did not seek nor receive special benefit with respect to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority's designation of the complex as an economic zone, to which PEZA attested to in a letter in August 2013. — Janelle Cosino/JDS, GMA News