World's best casino stock on a roll, buoyed by Manila's warming ties with Beijing

Manila

MELCO Crown Philippines Resorts Corp is the best-performing casino stock in the world this year. To punters playing baccarat at the company's City of Dreams venue in Manila, that's no surprise.

"Foreign players have multiplied and they're mostly Chinese," said Fernando, 49, a Filipino supply manager who has been gambling at City of Dreams - which boasts gold-tinted windows and a children's theme park - since it opened officially in 2015. He didn't want to give his surname. "There are times that you need to wait to get a seat at the tables and when there's a thick crowd, it's not rare that you're playing with a Chinese tourist."