Pagcor experiences surprising online rise

The gaming regulator saw an increase of its online revenues at the end of 2016.

Philippines.- Andrea Domingo, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor)’s Chair, confirmed that the state gaming regulator incremented its gross gaming revenues to US$1 billion at the end of 2016.

“Not only were we able to maintain our revenues, but we were actually able to improve it,” said Domingo. The numbers are also significantly better than the ones registered in the third quarter, when gross gaming revenues fell from US$29.5 million in 2015 to US$14.5 million in 2016. The license suspension of PhilWeb, one of Philippines biggest operators, was one of the main reasons why the revenues suffered a decline. Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Philippines, had announced in the last few days of December his decision of closing all forms on online gambling in the country, but later that month, he backtracked his decision.

“Even without an extraordinary income, Pagcor would have still improved revenues in 2016 by about P4.5 billion,” Domingo said, and confirmed that in 2017 they will focus on foreign markets: “We have granted 35 licenses to local operators, but we have many expressions of interest from abroad, we want to focus on foreign markets. Pagcor gains through the licensing fees, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue also gains by collecting income taxes from these operators. And most importantly, they create value locally because of the local talent that they hire and the lease they have to pay for their operations.”