Happy Felix Unger Day to all. The Philippines provides this year’s odd couple, as the world’s largest jurisdiction with legal online gambling alongside billion dollar-plus casino resorts. Unsurprisingly, online gaming revenue is growing fast while land-based revenue declines in Asia’s second largest gaming market. The best bet for Philippine retail casinos is building category killer properties in underserved areas. But online and in-person gambling appear destined to struggle to coexist in the same space as much as Felix and Oscar.
Former US diplomat and broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is Asia editor at large for Clarion Media, a longtime contributor to Forbes, columnist for Asia Times and author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about TV news, love, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. See his biography, online archive and more at www.muhammadcohen.com; follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, ex-Twitter @MuhammadCohen and now on Blue Sky @MuhammadCohen.bsky.social.