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PAGCOR Considers Whether to Permit Retail Casinos to Offer Online Gambling Services

In light of the financial difficulties that are currently being faced by the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR), the regulator is considering a proposal under which land-based casinos across the country could be permitted to accept online bets. Both the Government and gambling companies are trying to find ways to compensate for the losses because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Asia Gaming Brief shared that PAGCOR responded with an email to one of its briefs, revealing that the market watchdog had received a request from the country’s gambling operators during the Covid-19 crisis. The industry watchdog confirmed that it is currently mulling over the proposal aimed at allowing retail gambling properties to start accepting online bets from known patrons. PAGCOR shared that for the time being, studies related to the proposals are being carried out by the concerned department but did not provide any more details on the situation.

According to information shared by an unnamed industry source, the proposal will probably affect only Philippine customers only. The person familiar with the matter also shared that a bigger announcement will probably be made in the near future.

PAGCOR and Gambling Companies Suffer Revenue Decline Due to Coronavirus Closures

For a few weeks now, there have been rumors that PAGCOR was considering proposals to make online gambling operations legal for local consumers. For the time being, such a step seems to be limited to casinos only but it is definitely making a significant move forward, especially considering the strict regulatory action against online gambling.

Given the recent casino closures that have been initiated as part of the Government’s policy to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus, many industry insiders had been hopeful for a step towards easing the regulatory regime on the country’s gambling sector.

Casino resorts across the Philippines were forced to cease operation in March under the social distancing measures unveiled in light of the coronavirus situation. PAGCOR allowed them to resume operation at the end of August but the venues had to reopen at only 30% of their capacity and with strict hygiene and safety measures in place. However, these measures have strongly affected the casino sector, especially considering the fact that the venues were forced to operate with capacity restrictions on, and with literally no foreign tourists to visit the retail gambling operations in the Philippines.

So far, financial results to September 2020 have been released only by Belle Corp., which shares revenue from the City of Dreams Manila. As revealed by the company, its revenue had declined by 96% from PHP2.56 million in 2019 to PHP93 million.

Apart from that, the PAGCOR revenue had also suffered a hard blow because of the casino closures during the coronavirus crisis. The regulatory body, which uses about 50% of its income to fund nationwide projects, said that its casino revenue in the second quarter suffered a 95.7% decline.



 Author: Harrison Young

Harrison Young is an experienced writer, who started his career almost 8 years ago. Prior to joining our team at CasinoGamesPro, he worked as an editor for a small magazine.
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