The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp has granted Udenna Corp a provisional licence to build a US$300m gaming facility on Mactan Island in the province of Cebu.
The project, dubbed Lapu-Lapu Leisure Mactan, will sit on 12 hectares of beachfront property near the airport. The property will have a skydiving centre on a pier, a convention centre, luxury hotels and villas, speciality dining options, private residences and condominium hotels.
The operator is controlled by Mindanao-based businessman Dennis Uy, one of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s top campaign donors during the election.
PAGCOR chair Andrea Domingo said in March that the regulator has imposed a moratorium on new integrated resorts in metro Manila to shield pioneering integrated resort operators from greater competition. The existing investors, which together with their partners have invested at least $1bn each, are Macau’s Melco Crown, Malaysia’s Genting Group, Japan’s Universal Entertainment and Bloomberry Resorts owned by Filipino businessman Enrique Razon.
