Gambling in Metro Manila has been regulated since 1976 when the

Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR, ) is a government-owned and controlled corporation established through the ''Presidential Decree 1869''. PAGCOR is the Philippines' largest contributor of revenue to the government after the ...

(PAGCOR) was created through Presidential Decree 1067. Under its charter promulgated in 1983, the 100% state-owned PAGCOR, running under the direct supervision of the

Office of the President Office of the President can refer to: * Office of the President of Brazil * Office of the President of the People's Republic of China (entity in the Office of the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party) * Office of the President (Republi ...

, serves three crucial roles: to regulate and operate all games of chance in the country, particularly casino gaming; generate funds for the government's infrastructure and socio-civic projects; and boost local tourism. Prior to 1976, illegal gambling dominated the Philippines as unlicensed casinos and underground

bookmaking A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookm ...

operations were opened across the country. Illegal forms of gambling included

jueteng Jueteng () is a numbers game played in the Philippines. First reported in the late 1800s while the Philippines was under Spanish rule, it was made illegal in 1907 after the United States occupied the Philippines. Despite this, and successive sub ...

, masiao and ''last two''. Among the few lawful gambling activities in those days were church-organised

bingo Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers ** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland ** Bi ...

sessions and

jai alai Jai alai (: ) is a sport involving bouncing a ball off a walled-in space by accelerating it to high speeds with a hand-held wicker ''cesta''. It is a variation of Basque pelota. The term ''jai alai'', coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also oft ...

wagering at the

Manila Jai Alai Building The Manila Jai Alai Building was a building designed by American architects Welton Becket and Walter Wurdeman that functioned as a building for which jai alai games were held. It was built in the Streamline Moderne style in 1940 and survived ...

. In 1977, PAGCOR opened its first casino, The Manila Bay Casino, a floating casino which operated in all three decks of luxury liner '' MS Philippine Tourist'' off

Manila Bay Manila Bay ( fil, Look ng Maynila) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between the Phili ...

in partnership with the Philippine Casino Operators Corporation (PCOC) and Manila Bay Enterprises, Inc. (MBEI) which was majority owned by the ''

Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau The Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, SA; abbreviated as STDM, (, English: "Tourism and Entertainment Company of Macau Limited") is a company in Macau owned by Stanley Ho and his family. Historically, it held a monopoly to Macau's ga ...

'' of casino magnate,

Stanley Ho Stanley Ho Hung-sun (; 25 November 192126 May 2020) was a Hong Kong-Macau billionaire businessman. His original patrilineal surname was Bosman, which was later sinicized to 何 (Ho). He was the founder and chairman of SJM Holdings, which owns ...

. When a fire gutted the ship in 1979, PAGCOR shifted its operations to land-based casinos. By the end of that year, the Philippine Village Hotel built in 1974 at the old ''Nayong Pilipino'' complex adjacent to

Ninoy Aquino International Airport Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA , ; fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Ninoy Aquino or ''Pandaigdigang Paliparan ng Ninoy Aquino''; ), originally known and still commonly referred to as Manila International Airport (MIA), is the main ...

(NAIA) became home to the city's first land-based casino.

Casino gambling

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

currently has around twenty casinos, most of which are located near the Manila Bay area and

Parañaque Parañaque, officially the City of Parañaque ( fil, Lungsod ng Parañaque, ), is a first class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Metro Manila, National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to t ...

. Most casinos in the city are operated by PAGCOR under the ''Casino Filipino'' brand. Gambling in Manila now takes place primarily in luxury

casino hotel A casino hotel is an establishment consisting of a casino with temporary lodging provided in an on-premises hotel. Customers receive the benefits of both gambling facilities and lodging. Since the casino and hotel are located on the same premis ...

s and

integrated resort An integrated resort (IR) is a major resort property that includes a hotel with a casino, together with convention facilities, entertainment shows, theme parks, luxury retail and fine dining. The term is largely Singaporean. Earlier IR lice ...

s located in

Entertainment City Entertainment City, also known as E-City (formerly ''PAGCOR City'' and ''Manila Bay Tourism City''), is a gaming and entertainment complex under development by PAGCOR spanning an area of in Bay City, Metro Manila, Philippines. It was first envi ...

and Newport City under license from PAGCOR. The Casino Filipino Pavilion at the Waterfront Manila Pavilion (former Holiday Inn Manila Pavilion) is Manila's oldest surviving casino which opened in 1986. The city's largest stand-alone casino was Casino Filipino Airport housed in the PRIC Building on

Ninoy Aquino Avenue Ninoy Aquino Avenue is a north–south collector road that links Pasay and Parañaque in southern Metro Manila, Philippines.

formerly occupied by Duty Free Philippines until 1997 but was closed down in July 2014. In 2009,

Resorts World Manila Newport World Resorts (formerly Resorts World Manila) is an integrated resort, located in Newport City, opposite Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3, in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. The resort is owned and operated by Tra ...

, the Philippines' first integrated resort, was built on a portion of

Villamor Air Base Colonel Jesus Villamor Air Base, known simply as Villamor Air Base , is the headquarters of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) and shares runways with Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). It was formerly known as Nichols Field or Nichols Air ...

Pasay Pasay, officially the City of Pasay ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasay; ), is a 1st class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Metro Manila, National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, i ...

across from NAIA Terminal 3. The city's newest casino is the $2.4-B

Okada Manila Okada Manila ( ja, オカダマニラ, Okada Manira) is a casino resort and hotel complex located on the Entertainment City gaming strip in Parañaque, Metro Manila, Philippines. In 2007, with a total construction cost of about 250 billion Yen ...

completed in December 2016 in Entertainment City, the third of four billion-dollar casinos to rise in Manila's gaming strip.

Closed casinos

* Casino Filipino Airport (closed 2014) * Casino Filipino Heritage Hotel (closed 2013) * Grand Boulevard Hotel & Casino *

Silahis International Hotel The Silahis International Hotel, later known as the Sofitel Grand Boulevard Hotel, is an abandoned hotel in Manila, Philippines. History Early years The Silahis International Hotel was built in the 1970s, during a construction boom of hotels due ...

(closed 2008) * Philippine Village Hotel Casino (closed 2001) * Manila Bay Casino (closed 1979)

Sports gambling

Sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basket ...

has a long history in the Philippines. Popular forms of legalized sports gambling include betting on

cockfighting A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the ''word'' gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or ente ...

and

horseracing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

. ''Sabong'', as how cockfighting is known locally, has been hugely popular even prior to

Spanish colonization The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...

in 1521. It was legalized and regulated in the early 18th century as a source of revenue for the Spanish colonial government. In 1854, the Tondo cockpit in Manila generated as much as 80,000 Mexican silver dollars for the government. By 1861, a new series of regulations were passed which permitted it to be held on Sundays and holidays, including town fiestas. The sport remains popular today and is regulated by the Philippine Gamefowl Commission created in 1981 under the

Games and Amusement Board The Games and Amusements Board (GAB) ( tgl, Lupon sa Palaro at Libangan) is the government-ran regulatory body of professional sports in the Philippines. History The Games and Amusements Board initially started its operation in 1951 with the issu ...

. The Games and Amusement Board also regulates jai alai and horseracing operations as well as off-track

stations in the country. Jai alai was first introduced in the Philippines in 1899 with some of the earlier games played in the

Casino Español de Manila Casino Español de Manila is a club established in 1893 by Spaniards living in the Philippines as their exclusive venue for recreational and social activities. It later opened its doors to Filipino members to foster Spanish-Filipino ties in the co ...

. In 1939, the games shifted to the

. Jai alai was temporarily banned in 1986 because of problems with

game fixing In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...

. The building was subsequently torn down in 2000. By March 2010, however, jai alai returned to the country with the games now being played in a fronton in

Santa Ana, Cagayan Santa Ana, officially the Municipality of Santa Ana ( ibg, Ili nat Santa Ana; ilo, Ili ti Santa Ana; tl, Bayan ng Santa Ana), is a 2nd class municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, province of Cagayan, Philippi ...

. Betting on other competitive sports such as boxing, basketball, football and tennis is also possible through licensed

sportsbook In the United States, a sportsbook or a race and sports book (sometimes abbreviated as book) is a place where a gambler can wager on various sports competitions, including golf, football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, soccer, horse racing, ...

MegaSportsWorld that has several branches in

and a telephone service.

Online gambling

PAGCOR operates 102 e-Games stations throughout Metro Manila. An e-Games station is an internet café that allows customers to play casino games online. In addition, there are 12 e-Games sites in the metropolis operated by BigGame, Inc. (BGI), a subsidiary of PhilWeb Corporation, under license from PAGCOR. As of August 10, 2016, the e-Games outlets operated by PhilWeb were closed following the non-renewal of its license by PAGCOR.

References

External links

World Casino Directory – Philippine Casinos & Gambling
{{Metro Manila Tourism in Metro Manila Gambling in the Philippines Economy of Metro Manila Culture in Metro Manila