In an announcement, the company cited “the challenging operating environment” resulting from “the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic” and “the regulatory uncertainty in the gaming industry” as its reasons for terminating the agreement.

This comes exactly one year after all parties involved entered into the agreement. On 30 December 2020, Rich Goldman’s wholly owned subsidiary Prime Jade enterprises and Great Happy Century announced a joint venture to bring VIP players to a gaming room at Solaire.

Their agreement came into effect on 1 January 2021 but from 1 January 2022, it will be rendered null and void.

The joint venture, named Ever Lucky Global, was originally announced in April 2020 and was intended to introduce customers to the live gaming tables in the casino’s VIP rooms, but due to ongoing public health measures to combat Covid, as well as competition, this proved difficult.

Rich Goldman said: “The group’s gaming and entertainment business has been adversely affected due to the prolonged social distancing and travel restriction measures imposed by the local government in the Philippines to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In addition, the intense market competition in the Philippines has posed additional challenges. These resulted in the unsatisfactory performance of the joint venture company.”

As a result, the agreement has now been dissolved and Rich Goldman will instead focus its resources on other principal businesses, namely, its money lending business, hotel operations business and property leasing business.