New $1.2 billion mega casino opens in PHL

The Philippines' $1.2 billion top-end mega casino aimed at being a world-class gaming destination officially started operations Saturday afternoon. "Solaire Resort & Casino is now OPEN! Visit us at 1 Solaire Boulevard, Entertainment City, Metro Manila!" according to the Twitter account of Solaire Resort at around 3 p.m. Before to the announcement, the account had already begun posting pictures of VIPs who attended the launch, including no less than President Benigno Aquino III. According to an Agence France-Presse report, Solaire Manila Resorts is the first of four huge entertainment venues slated to rise on reclaimed land on Manila Bay that industry and government officials hope will draw millions of newly well-off Asian visitors. "What Solaire brings is an entertainment and gaming experience that doesn't exist in the Philippines today," its American chief operating officer Michael French told AFP in an interview earlier this week. "The gaming experience here will probably be as good, if not even better, than what they (customers) can achieve in Las Vegas." Controlled by billionaire Philippine port operator Enrique Razon and run by Las Vegas-based Global Gaming Asset Management, Solaire has 300 gaming tables and 1,200 slot machines on a floor the size of four football pitches. The building also has 500 hotel rooms and 2,000 parking slots. Another wing is being built to add 300 all-suite hotel rooms, 30-40 high-end shops and a theatre for travelling Broadway shows as well as local and foreign lounge acts. - Gian C. Geronimo, VVP, GMA News