POGOs draw international interest
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., the country’s state-controlled gaming regulator, saw a notable increase in gaming revenues for 2016, despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign to stamp out online gaming.
PAGCOR Chairwoman Andrea Domingo told the Inquirer that gross gaming revenues rose to P55 billion (US$1.1 billion) at the close of 2016, up P8 billion year-on-year. “Not only were we able to maintain our revenues, but we were actually able to improve it,” said Domingo, who attributed the 17 percent increase to a more robust market and improved efficiencies, including a cap on operating expenses of 25 percent of revenues. Marketing expenses were contained at 5 percent, she added.
PAGCOR also benefited from a Supreme Court ruling that favored the casino industry in its dispute with the Bureau of Internal Revenue last year, reported the website Yogonet.com. The high court reversed an earlier policy that allowed authorities to collect income taxes from PAGCOR as well as its licensees.
“Even without this extraordinary income, PAGCOR would have still improved revenues in 2016 by about P4.5 billion,” Domingo said.
The PAGCOR chief said she is “excited” about the new Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators category, created last year to help bring unregulated online gaming under the government’s supervision. Since the introduction of POGO licenses, she has received “numerous requests” from gaming operators in the United States and Europe.
“We have granted 35 licenses to local operators, but we have many expressions of interest from abroad,” Domingo said. “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.”
