Entertainment City

Also known as: Bagong Nayong Pilipino–Entertainment City · Bagong Nayong Pilipino Entertainment City · Entertainment City Manila · E-City · PAGCOR Entertainment City · Expo Pilipino Entertainment City

Places

Definition

Entertainment City — officially styled Bagong Nayong Pilipino–Entertainment City — is the master-planned gaming-tourism district that the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) developed on reclaimed Manila Bay land in Bay City, Parañaque, Metro Manila. Conceived by PAGCOR in 2002 as a “Bagong Nayong Pilipino” (New Filipino Town) tourism project and opened to international casino investors around 2007, the district is the Philippine counterpart of a Las Vegas-style strip: a concentration of licensed integrated resorts — Solaire Resort & Casino, City of Dreams Manila, Okada Manila, and the Westside City complex — each carried by a billion-dollar-class investment commitment. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City) The land regime was fixed on March 1, 2010, when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Proclamation No. 2019, creating and designating 656,707 square meters (about 65.67 hectares) of land along Bay City, Parañaque as a tourism economic zone “known as Bagong Nayong Pilipino – Entertainment City Manila” under the Special Economic Zone Act (Republic Act No. 7916). (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 2019)

The statutory authority beneath the project is PAGCOR’s own franchise. Presidential Decree No. 1869 (July 11, 1983) chartered PAGCOR as the government corporation empowered to operate and license games of chance, and Republic Act No. 9487 (June 20, 2007) extended the franchise for another twenty-five years and authorized the corporation to enter into joint-venture, management, and investment agreements with private proponents — the authority under which the Entertainment City project agreements of 2007 onward were executed. (Wikipedia — PAGCOR) The site, in the Tambo area of Parañaque on the western side of Roxas Boulevard south of the SM Mall of Asia complex, is recorded as a PEZA-approved economic zone, layering fiscal incentives for registered tourism enterprises on top of PAGCOR’s gaming licenses. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City)

Identities

Source	Identifier	URL
Wikipedia	Entertainment City	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_City
Wikidata	Entertainment City (Q5380444)	https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5380444
DBpedia	Entertainment_City	https://dbpedia.org/page/Entertainment_City
ProductOntology	N/A	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	N/A	N/A
MeSH	N/A	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A	N/A
Google Scholar	Entertainment City Parañaque PAGCOR Bagong Nayong Pilipino integrated resort Solaire City of Dreams Okada Manila Westside Philippines gaming tourism	N/A
ConceptNet	N/A	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A	N/A

Also Known As

Bagong Nayong Pilipino–Entertainment City
Bagong Nayong Pilipino Entertainment City
Entertainment City Manila
E-City
PAGCOR Entertainment City
Expo Pilipino Entertainment City

Examples and Analogies

A Las Vegas strip on Manila Bay: the district’s design logic is geographic concentration — separate casino-hotels clustered on one reclaimed waterfront so that visitors, entertainment bookings, and mass-market traffic compound rather than disperse, the same clustering bet that shaped the Las Vegas Strip and Macau’s Cotai.
First through the gate: Solaire, developed by Bloomberry Resorts Corporation, was the first licensee to break ground (July 2010) and the first to open (March 16, 2013) — the first-mover record this wiki’s Bloomberry Resorts entry documents — with the later licensees opening into a district Solaire had already put on the map. (Wikipedia — Solaire Resort & Casino)
The stalled fifth plot: the NayonLanding project shows the district’s licensing gate in action — a groundbreaking held on August 7, 2018 was followed the same night by the President’s dismissal of the Nayong Pilipino Foundation board and the eventual collapse of the casino license, a documented refusal rather than a market failure. (Inside Asian Gaming — August 2018, ABS-CBN News)
Verified project data:
Concept and call: envisioned by PAGCOR in 2002; open call to global casino investors around 2007 (Wikipedia — Entertainment City)
Land instrument: Proclamation No. 2019, signed March 1, 2010, by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo — 656,707 square meters in Bay City, Parañaque as a tourism economic zone under RA 7916, named “Bagong Nayong Pilipino – Entertainment City Manila” (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 2019)
Franchise basis: PD 1869 (July 11, 1983), PAGCOR’s charter; RA 9487 (June 20, 2007), the 25-year franchise extension authorizing joint ventures for Entertainment City (Wikipedia — PAGCOR)
Solaire Resort & Casino: opened March 16, 2013; US$1.2-billion commitment; operated by Bloomberry Resorts (Wikipedia — Solaire Resort & Casino)
City of Dreams Manila: soft-launched December 14, 2014, grand opening February 2, 2015; about US$1.3 billion; developed by Melco with Belle Corporation (Wikipedia — Entertainment City)
Okada Manila: preview opening December 21, 2016, casino operations from December 30, 2016; owned by Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment, a subsidiary of Japan’s Universal Entertainment Corporation (Wikipedia — Okada Manila)
Westside City: Grand Westside Hotel opened June 22, 2024 with 1,530 rooms — recorded as the largest Philippine hotel by room count; the casino, developed by Suntrust, was delayed to a third-quarter 2026 target and renamed Westside Resort in February 2026 (Wikipedia — Entertainment City, BusinessWorld, Inside Asian Gaming — February 2026)
NayonLanding: Landing International project stalled after the August 2018 events; the Wikipedia record attributes the stall to the administration’s moratorium on new casino licenses (Wikipedia — Entertainment City)

Usage Scenarios

1. Locating the Philippine Integrated-Resort Industry

Analysts of Philippine gaming use Entertainment City as the sector’s anchor: the four operating resorts’ gaming floors, hotels, and theaters concentrate the country’s large-format casino tourism in one Parañaque district, with performance figures — such as Solaire’s gross gaming revenue — read as the industry’s baseline, the framing this wiki’s Bloomberry Resorts entry carries. (Wikipedia — Solaire Resort & Casino)

2. Tracing the Licensing and Incentive Stack

Legal researchers trace the district’s peculiar double regime: a PAGCOR casino license under the PD 1869/RA 9487 franchise layered with PEZA tourism-economic-zone incentives under Proclamation No. 2019 — two regulators, one site. (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 2019, Wikipedia — PAGCOR)

3. Following the Fourth Resort’s Long Build-Out

The Westside City complex — Travellers International and Megaworld’s township, its Grand Westside Hotel open since June 22, 2024, its Suntrust-built casino repeatedly delayed to a 2026 opening under the Westside Resort name — is the standing case study of the district’s phased, delay-prone build-out. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City, BusinessWorld, Inside Asian Gaming — February 2026)

4. Studying Gaming-Policy Shifts

The district records the policy swings of three administrations: the 2017 renaming to “Expo Pilipino Entertainment City” under President Duterte, the licensing moratorium that froze NayonLanding, and the ban on Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) effective July 22, 2024 under President Marcos Jr. — each documented pivot in the state’s management of casino-led tourism. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City, Wikipedia — PAGCOR)

5. Visiting the District

For travelers, Entertainment City functions as a compact resort destination on Manila Bay — Solaire, City of Dreams, Okada Manila, and the Grand Westside Hotel within one reclaimed waterfront — connected to the Mall of Asia complex by the coastal Roxas Boulevard corridor. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City)

Strategies

Concentrate the licensees, then let them sequence themselves: PAGCOR licensed multiple proponents for one district and let build-out order fall to the investors — Solaire first (2010 groundbreaking, 2013 opening), City of Dreams (2014–2015), Okada Manila (2016), Westside (2024 hotel, casino pending) — a staggered opening calendar that kept the district continuously in the news. (Wikipedia — Solaire Resort & Casino, Wikipedia — Entertainment City)
Stack the incentives: the tourism-economic-zone designation of Proclamation No. 2019 added PEZA incentives to licensed casino resorts, the inducement structure the 2007-era project agreements relied on. (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 2019)
Gate the license at the lease: the NayonLanding record shows PAGCOR tying the provisional license to the validity of the proponent’s land lease with the Nayong Pilipino Foundation — the regulator’s lever over the project after the political turn of August 2018. (Inside Asian Gaming — August 2018)
Diversify beyond gaming: each resort pairs casinos with hotels, theaters, retail, and dining — the mass-market mix that carried the district through VIP-segment weakness and the pandemic-era closures its timeline records. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City)
For researchers: date every fact to its instrument — 1983 charter, 2007 franchise extension, 2010 proclamation, per-resort openings — since retellings compress the district’s decade-long build into a single moment. (Wikipedia — PAGCOR, LawPhil — Proclamation No. 2019)

Security and Safety Measures

Regulator on site: every integrated resort in the district operates under PAGCOR licenses and audit — the state gaming corporation’s dual role as operator of its own casinos and regulator of private licensees. (Wikipedia — PAGCOR)
Anti-money-laundering exposure: large-format casinos handle high cash volumes, placing Entertainment City’s operators under Philippine gaming regulation and anti-money-laundering rules — the compliance perimeter this wiki’s Bloomberry Resorts entry notes for Solaire’s licenses. (Wikipedia — Solaire Resort & Casino)
Layered physical security: integrated resorts combining mass gaming floors, hotels, theaters, and retail run on the surveillance, cash-handling, and crowd-control controls the format requires. (Wikipedia — Okada Manila)
Governance risk documented: the Okada Manila record — the 2017 removal of Kazuo Okada, the Supreme Court’s April 27, 2022 status quo ante order, and the May 31, 2022 physical takeover — is the district’s standing case that ownership disputes can reach the control room while the casino floor keeps operating. (Wikipedia — Okada Manila)
Pandemic-era continuity: the district’s resorts absorbed the COVID-19 closures and delays — the disruption the Wikipedia record credits with pushing Westside City’s opening back — and resumed under public-health protocols. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City)

Historical Context

The district’s legal foundations predate its buildings by decades. PAGCOR was chartered under Presidential Decree No. 1869 on July 11, 1983 as the government corporation licensed to run and regulate casinos; Republic Act No. 9487 of June 20, 2007 extended the franchise twenty-five years and expressly authorized joint-venture and investment agreements for Entertainment City in the Manila Bay area of Parañaque and Newport City in Pasay. (Wikipedia — PAGCOR) The “Bagong Nayong Pilipino” concept — a new Filipino town of casinos, hotels, and theme parks on reclaimed bay land — was PAGCOR’s from 2002, and the board’s open call to international investors around 2007 produced the proponent line-up. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City) On March 1, 2010, days before leaving office, President Arroyo signed Proclamation No. 2019, fixing the 65.67-hectare Bay City site as a tourism economic zone bearing the project’s name. (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 2019)

The build-out followed in sequence. Solaire broke ground first in July 2010 and opened on March 16, 2013 — President Benigno Aquino III leading the ceremony of the district’s first resort, as this wiki’s Bloomberry Resorts entry records. (Wikipedia — Solaire Resort & Casino) City of Dreams Manila soft-launched on December 14, 2014 and held its grand opening on February 2, 2015; Okada Manila previewed on December 21, 2016 and began casino operations on December 30, 2016. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City, Wikipedia — Okada Manila) The Duterte years then pulled policy in new directions: the district was renamed “Expo Pilipino Entertainment City” in 2017 after the 1998 centennial exposition, and in August 2018 the NayonLanding groundbreaking — a US$1.5-billion Landing International resort — ended the same night with the President’s dismissal of the Nayong Pilipino Foundation board over a deal he called disadvantageous; PAGCOR then tied the provisional gaming license to the lease’s validity, and a Department of Justice probe completed on August 30, 2018 found the arrangement flawed. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City, Inside Asian Gaming — August 2018, ABS-CBN News)

The current decade has been the era of consolidation and completion. Okada Manila passed through the 2022 governance battle — the Supreme Court’s April 27, 2022 status quo ante order and Kazuo Okada’s May 31, 2022 takeover of operations, later unwound — while the resort kept operating. (Wikipedia — Okada Manila) The Grand Westside Hotel opened on June 22, 2024 as the country’s largest hotel by room count, and the district’s casino map was set to complete with the Suntrust-built casino — renamed Westside Resort in February 2026 and repeatedly rescheduled, most recently to the third quarter of 2026, with no confirmed opening on the record as of this entry’s October 2026 verification. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City, Inside Asian Gaming — February 2026, BusinessWorld) The Marcos administration’s ban on offshore gaming operations effective July 22, 2024 reshaped the surrounding gaming economy without disturbing the integrated resorts’ licenses. (Wikipedia — PAGCOR)

Challenges and Controversies

The NayonLanding Rejection (2018)

The district’s sharpest documented policy reversal came on August 7, 2018: Landing International held the NayonLanding groundbreaking by day, and by night President Duterte fired the entire Nayong Pilipino Foundation board, calling the lease deal disadvantageous to government. PAGCOR announced the provisional gaming license would stand only if the land lease proved valid, and the Department of Justice’s probe, completed August 30, 2018, pronounced the deal flawed — the project never proceeded. (Inside Asian Gaming — August 2018, ABS-CBN News)

The Okada Manila Governance Battles

Okada Manila’s ownership contest ran from Kazuo Okada’s 2017 removal as chairman of Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment — after Universal Entertainment alleged misappropriation of funds — through the Supreme Court’s April 27, 2022 status quo ante order and the May 31, 2022 physical takeover by the Okada group, an episode media described as a violent takeover even as the casino kept operating; the leadership churn continued into 2025. The disputes are corporate-litigation matters documented in the judicial record, recorded here without adjudication of the underlying allegations. (Wikipedia — Okada Manila)

The Duterte-Era Policy Swing

The district that two administrations built was repeatedly rebranded and constrained by a third: the 2017 renaming to “Expo Pilipino Entertainment City” — a name the Wikipedia record carries but which never displaced the original in common usage — and the moratorium-era stance that stalled NayonLanding signaled that licensing growth would be politically reviewed, a posture later joined by the July 22, 2024 ban on offshore gaming operations. (Wikipedia — Entertainment City, Wikipedia — PAGCOR)

The Long Road to the Fourth Resort

Westside City’s casino is the district’s slowest deliverable: conceived in the 2007-era agreements as Resorts World Bayshore, delayed by the pandemic and construction reviews, its hotel open since June 22, 2024 while the casino was pushed in June 2025 to a third-quarter 2026 target and renamed Westside Resort in February 2026 — the documented schedule slippage against which the district’s completion is measured. (BusinessWorld, Inside Asian Gaming — February 2026, Wikipedia — Entertainment City)