Casino privatisation gets PAGCOR approval
PAGCOR won’t contest the government’s attempt to privatise casino operations in the Philippine country, according to Andrea Domingo’s comments.
Philippines.- The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) announced on Tuesday that it won’t obstaculise the government if it decides to push towards casino privatisation in the Asian country.
PAGCOR Chairwoman & CEO Andrea Domingo told reporters during a briefing in Pasay City: “On the privatisation of the PAGCOR-owned and operated casinos. It is a stated policy of the Department of Finance to privatise. I am not opposing that.”
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III sides with Domingo, according to a statement he made last year: “We had a discussion, and I suggested that PAGCOR should limit itself to the regulatory functions and should privatise their casino operations because, quite frankly, it’s very difficult for them to compete with other current casinos.”
“We are still at that point where we will have to decide the valuation of the 46 casinos we have, how we are gonna sell it, and at what price,” Domingo stated as she thinks that PAGCOR must review the proposal and study casinos’ valuations.
“I cannot just sit back. We worked on our casinos, made all of them profitable. We’re not opposing it. If it will happen, then it will happen. It’s a business opportunity and we’re gonna seize it,” she added.
When asked, Domingo didn’t release an estimate on the revenues to be generated from the sale and said no price has yet been set for its gaming assets. About pricing of the casinos, she explained: “There are ones that are really big… There are ones that are really small.” She also added that is still to be determined if the sale is going to get done as a whole or on a per property basis.
