Jai-alai, a Basque version of handball played with a long curved basket strapped to the wrist, will now be on six days a week at a stadium in central Manila.
State-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) estimates revenues of 1.5 billion pesos (about $40 million) will flow in from the game and allied betting per year to be shared in equal portions between itself and its two partners - a unit of Belle Corp and Filipinas Gaming Entertainment Totalisator Corp (Filgame).
"We will be making about 500 million pesos each per year," PAGCOR official Senen Lainez told Reuters.
Organisers have set up 120 computerised betting windows at the stadium, revamped at a cost of one billion pesos by Belle and Filgame, and plan to open 280 more at other locations in Manila.
By next year, windows will be opened across the country, each carrying the games on closed-circuit television alongside the latest odds on the players, Lainez said.
PAGCOR announced the completion of the deal only last week, sending Belle's shares soaring. It closed at 4.20 pesos on Tuesday, up 15 centavos, from a year-low of 1.50 pesos.
There was no advance word that the games would be resuming on Tuesday, but hundreds of spectators were at the 2,600-seat stadium anyway, cheering lustily as Spanish and local players, who have been in training for months, took part in the inaugural game.
Betting was brisk despite the lack of knowledge about the players, with a minimum wager of 10 pesos and no maximum.
"Imagine what will happen tomorrow, when people will know that the games have resumed," said Erasmo Rivera, another PAGCOR official.
Jai-alai, which originated in the Basque region of Spain, has long been popular in the Philippines, formerly a Spanish colony and named after King Philip of Spain. It was banned in 1986 by the government of then president Corazon Aquino after a game-fixing scandal.
An attempt to resurrect the game was made in 1994, but the Supreme Court banned it again on the grounds that gambling was against the national interest and that the game had to be franchised only by the national government.
PAGCOR, which operates casinos and other gambling in the country, said it had sought and received clearance from the Department of Justice and the president's office for the resumption of jai-alai.
But many senators and the powerful Catholic church have opposed jai-alai's relaunch, saying it targets low-income groups which can ill afford to gamble.
Reuters
