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MANILA — A casino rush has started in the Philippines, buoyed by strong economic growth and a stock market that has been among the top performers in the world this year, with the $1.2 billion Solaire Manila property scheduled to open in March.

The project, being developed by the port magnate Enrique Razon Jr., is an indication of the stakes riding on the country’s ambition to join Macau and Singapore among top gambling destinations in Asia.

But it is accompanied by a government investigation into bribery allegations related to the bid by the Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada to build a casino in the same development on Manila Bay, a setback to President Benigno Aquino III’s efforts to overcome the Philippines’ reputation for corruption.

Mr. Razon, the third-richest man in the Philippines and chairman of both International Container Terminal Services and Bloomberry Resorts, has said that the investigation has had no effect on his development.

“Mr. Okada, being a foreigner, maybe didn’t know exactly how to operate in the Philippines, but the administration now with President Aquino has created serious credibility on the corruption front,” Mr. Razon said in his office in Manila’s port area.

Nearby, 6,000 workers were racing to finish the 15-story, 500-room Solaire. Rows of slot machines and crystal chandeliers in plastic wrapping waited in the main gambling hall.

Part of a project that the government has said it hopes will draw in millions of foreigners each year, Solaire will be the first of four resorts to open during the next three years in the 100-hectare, or 250-acre, Manila Bay complex.

Other projects include a casino owned jointly by the wealthiest man in the Philippines, Henry Sy, who controls Belle Corp., and the Macau operator Melco Crown Entertainment, owned by the Australian billionaire James Packer and the Hong Kong businessman Lawrence Ho.

Challenges include Manila’s dilapidated infrastructure and general concerns about both safety and corruption — problems that have limited foreign investment in the Philippines for years.

But a thriving local casino market, in which residents are free to gamble and operators enjoy strong government support, means investors remain optimistic.

Bets at Manila gambling locations average about 40 pesos, or $1, compared with Macau, where gambling tables often have a minimum bet of 300 patacas, or $38. To change that, Manila is aiming to use junkets to bring in high rollers from China and the rest of Asia.

Junkets — run by intermediaries who work on behalf of casino operators, loaning credit to players and helping them bypass currency restrictions — are widely used in Macau, where they account for more than 70 percent of total gambling revenue.

The Philippines is offering lower gambling taxes and lucrative payment terms to junket operators, which face increased regulation and scrutiny on their home turf.

Paul Joseph Garcia, chief investment officer at BPI Asset Management in Manila, said the jury was still out on whether the Philippines would be successful in luring junkets.

“I am still not that confident about our ability to attract the foreign V.I.P.’s, the junkets from Macau and other players from the region. We have a chance of getting some market share, that is for sure,” Mr. Garcia said, adding that he would wait for lower share prices before increasing BPI’s investments in Philippine gambling.

Regulated by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., or Pagcor, a government body that itself operates 13 casinos, gambling has been entrenched in the Philippines since the 1800s, when the country was a Spanish colony.

Casinos, basketball betting, bingo and jueteng — an illegal numbers game — are popular with both low- and high-income residents.

The Resorts World casino, owned by Genting Hong Kong and the Philippine property tycoon Andrew Tan, features a shopping mall; a theater for Broadway-style shows; hotels including a Marriott and a high-stakes V.I.P. club; and a cavernous main gambling floor. That contrasts with Pagcor’s Casino Filipino, which operates branches where elderly locals play bingo on plastic chairs beneath fluorescent lights.

On a recent Sunday night, Resorts World’s V.I.P. floor was filled with Chinese gamblers playing baccarat as Mandarin-speaking waitresses served drinks.

Solaire, Mr. Razon’s development, which will open with 90 V.I.P. tables and 200 for ordinary gamblers, is also vying to attract moneyed Chinese. Bloomberry is in talks with more than two dozen junket operators and is aiming to bring in more than 50 percent of its total revenue from the V.I.P. segment after a year.

Mr. Razon’s group is working to overcome the obstacles of heavy traffic and Manila’s overburdened, aging main international airport as it seeks to attract high rollers.

“We would fly them in privately from Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai, places like that,” Mr. Razon said.

CLSA, an investment brokerage firm based in Hong Kong, estimates that the Philippine gambling market will reach $3 billion by 2015. While Macau raked in more than 10 times that amount in 2011, the Philippines is expected to line up more closely with Singapore, which made $5.7 billion in 2011.

South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam are also considering legalization of gambling. For the next few years, however, investors view the Philippines as a more immediate alternative.