The casino war here may have been won by the city government, which had opposed its operation. However, Cheryl Ann Ruiz Arnold, corporate communications officer of Thunderbird Resorts, said 60 percent of customers of their casino in nearby San Fernando City in La Union come from Baguio. The casino attracts from 1,000 to 2,000 patrons daily, said Arnold. Thunderbird is the same company that wanted to open a casino in Baguio five years ago but the thunder against it was stronger here.

Thunderbird Resorts will build four five-star hotels in the cities of Cusco, Arequipa, Trujillo (La Libertad) and Iquitos (Loreto) in the following three years, according to the general manager of hotel chain Las Américas, Pierre Berthier. ast May, Thunderbird Resorts was granted the Peruvian hotel chain Las Américas offering USD 43,501,839, a number that exceded the base price established by its owner, Caja de Pensiones Militar Policial, on USD 40.5 million.