I remember a joke that someone told me a long time ago, and it has stuck in my head ever since. It goes, "you know what the only thing you can rely on to be absolutely true in a newspaper? The date." If found it to be true more often than not. I had a good laugh this morning after reading two minor news publications' front page coverage of an "illegal casino" at the Metrowalk Complex in Pasig.

The article, baseless and uninformed, talks about The Metro Card Club.

"The casino starts to come to life after office hours or around 6:30 p.m. and operates until the wee hours of the morning. It is open every day.

It claims to be under the auspices of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and has a business permit from the Pasig City government.

But no city official has admitted allowing a casino to operate in the city. It is not clear under what license the casino operates or if it is, at all, sanctioned by Pagcor."

DUH. I can help shove the Metro's license to operate and Memorandum of Agreement under PAGCOR down this reporters throat if he even bothered to TRY finding sources for his allegations. Every night we have a PAGCOR representative on the floor at The Card Room!

"The website www.metrocard-club.com says the casino’s vision claims "to make the Philippines the place to play Poker in Asia, and be competitive with the rest of the world in the poker industry."

"We are committed to promoting the game of poker all over the country, providing players with a sense of community among other players and a place where they feel safe, secure, and comfortable while playing the game," it said."


Well said. I should know, i wrote it ;) That's what we provide at the Metro, a Legal, safe, secure place for poker players to play the game they love. We are NOT a casino. We don't have slots, table games, house games. Our door is open to anyone who wants to see for themselves.

"Metrowalk tenants and clients are worried that the wholesome image of the newest restaurant and entertainment destination in Pasig City would be eroded with the continued operation of the casino. A restaurant owner who declined to be named said: "If the casino continues to operate, we may have a difficult time maintaining our patrons who go for clean and wholesome entertainment here in Metrowalk.""

Oh, so a discreet members poker club will ruin the "wholesome" image of Metrowalk? And the DILDO SHOP with sex toys ON DISPLAY for the whole public to see is ok with Metrowalk? Yeah, a sex shop can be found in Metrowalk, INSIDE the main complex itself. How's that for hypocrisy?

This is a laughing matter to us because we all know where it's coming from and what the intentions were when the articles were written. They even made accusations that drugs were being "peddled" inside the card room. Pathetic. It's pretty obvious that this is a smear campaign aimed at a legitimate organization to make us look bad and give us trouble. Also, it's almost Christmas time, so these corrupt journalists will take anything to make an extra buck, or force organizations such as ours to pay them to shut up.

We say BRING IT ON. We have everything on our side, all the legal documents, and we will be backed by the local government and by PAGCOR itself.

There's an old Filipino saying that goes something like "the tree with the most fruit is the one that gets the most stones thrown at it." (translates badly into english hehe) Yeah, people want some of that fruit, and theyll keep throwing those stones to get them. We've been through this before too, so this time we know what to do.

The people responsible for this is a pathetic bunch. Just compete fairly, like we do. In the meantime, we'll just be going about our business providing the best poker experience to the poker community.

See you at The Metro!