Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd hopes to open a casino on the island of Boracay

Francis Louis Yiu Tang, vice president of Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd, said that the casino operator from Macao still believes in implementing the plan for a casino resort on the island of Boracay, despite the disagreement of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

On August 8, Louis announced that Galaxy Entertainment shares Duterte's views on the protection of the nature of the island of Boracay.

Last weekend, the head of the PAGCOR Philippine regulator Andrea Domingo reported that the Galaxy Entertainment plan for the island of Boracay will not have any development.

On April 26, the government of the Philippines ordered to close Boracay for tourists for half a year with the goal of ecological cleansing of the territory.

Louis, in turn, stressed that the Galaxy Entertainment project is an environmentally friendly resort with 200 villas and only 50-60 gaming tables, compared to more than 6,000 tables that the company has in Macau.

However, due to the attitude of the leader of the state, Domingo stated that it would be easier for Galaxy Entertainment and Leisure & Resorts World Corp to choose another island for its project.

"Boracay is the only beautiful island with an international airport near China and Macao, so I still prefer this option," - Louis said.

The beginning of the third phase of the construction of the Macau Galaxy is postponed

Galaxy Entertainment postponed the start of the third phase of the construction of its casino resort in Kotay - Galaxy Macau. Now it will open in 2020 instead of 2019. The fourth phase will begin in 2021, and the term of validity of the current license of Galaxy Entertainment in Macau ends in 2022. Nevertheless, according to the Vice-President, this in no way will affect the budget of the project, which will amount to at least $5.7 billion.

The operator said that the third phase will include 1500 hotel rooms, a bit of gambling space, and a huge arena with 16,000 seats. The group applied for the registration of the "Galaxy Arena Macau" and "Galaxy International Convention Center" names as trademarks.

As for the intention to get a Japanese casino license, Louis said that the company is also in search of a Japanese partner.

"We hope to conclude a partnership with the best Japanese company. We want to understand what local customers need, so that we can best justify their expectations," - the vice president added.

In the meantime, the chief financial officer of Galaxy Entertainment, Robert Drake, said that the company expects from the Macau government to disclose the details of the new tender process regarding the Macau license for gambling activities by the end of this year.

The current six licenses will expire in 2022 or 2020 in the case of SJM Holdings Ltd and MGM China Holdings Ltd.

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