The Pacific Seaboard Leisure and Entertainment Corp announced the creation of a new gaming jurisdiction within the 12,500-hectare of the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO) in the north-eastern part of the country’s main island Luzon.  The zone is eight hours by road from Manila 172 miles from the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), was given permission under a 2010 act of parliament to grant gaming licences to attract investment and boost economic growth and has begun offering both land-based and online casino licences.  APECO officials say they have so far signed two memorandums of understanding for projects on the Pacific coast of the island of Luzon.  One is with an Australian company and the second with a Chinese group.  They are reportedly also in talks with investors from Hong Kong and Macau.

Pacific Seaboard explained that applications for gaming licences should be directly filed to Pacific Seaboard, which will be in charge of screening the applicants and handling the financial and legal aspects of applications. Decisions on issuance of gaming licenses will be decided jointly by the Pacific Seaboard and APECO.  In addition, APECO will charge US$40,000 annually to license interactive gaming.  The same costs will apply regarding a licence for Internet casino operations or for a studio-based live video streaming service featuring live-dealer table games.  There will also be a “gaming levy” of 2 percent of licensees’ gross win per month, or a US$5,000-minimum levy per table per month, whichever is higher will be applied.  “The land-based casinos [are] going to be part of the ecotourism development of APECO.  So we will go hand in hand [with Pacific Seaboard] in promoting that,” said Israel Maducdoc, APECO’s president and chief executive.  “We’ve already been talking to a few locators investors that are interested in setting up some hotels and casinos there,” he added.