Philippines to work on its gaming authority

Gaming regulators are working towards the clarification of the authority scheme in the Philippines.

Philippines.- Administrator of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) Jose Maria Ponce, said that regulators are working in favor of reuniting all gaming licensing authorities in a single jurisdiction.

The Asian country features more than one gaming licensing jurisdiction: besides the biggest one called the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and CEZA, there are two more called APECO and the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan. The new proposal establishes that APECO licenses can extend the operation outside Aurora, whilst CEZA licenses can be operated outside Cagayan. PAGCOR license holders can operate all over the country except zones covered by the previously mentioned authorities.

“I think this is also the right venue for us to see how we could work together and promote the Philippine jurisdiction because we know that not doing that will affect the operations of the Philippines. We will be losing all our operators if we are all quarreling each other so I think that is one reason why we came up with an executive order,” the administrator said. The news were announced at the ASEAN Gaming Summit in Manila this week, where it was also reported that 2016 was the best year of the corporation since they reported US$1.1 billion in gross income.