Alejandro Tengco, the newly appointed chairman and chief executive of the Philippines gaming regulator, has asked for “time to study” the proposed sale of 40 casinos run by the agency.
Tengco was recently installed as head of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who was elected in May. Proponents of the sale say PAGCOR’s dual roles as regulator and operator constitute a clear conflict of interest. A sale of PAGCOR casinos, which operate under the Casino Filipino brand, has been a topic of discussion for several years.
According to Asia Gaming Brief, Philippine Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno has promised that the government will be “very aggressive” in its push for privatization of PAGCOR gaming halls. Should a sale go forward, PAGCOR could remain the regulating agency for both land-based and online gaming, but forfeit its role as an operator.
PAGCOR is one of the country’s biggest sources of tax revenues in the Philippines. Under former president Rodrigo Duterte, the agency expanded its regulatory footprint, creating a new online industry via Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and Philippine Inland Gaming Operator licenses (PIGOs). The latter launched in late 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, making the Philippines the first jurisdiction in Asia to regulate domestic online gaming.
The drive to privatize PAGCOR-owned casinos was revived as the new PAGCOR board was appointed.
“We are hoping to be given time to study this,” said Tengco. “That is part of our current thrust and agenda to really distinguish whether we are a regulator or an operator.”
PAGCOR saw a big jump in net income for the first half of this year, posting PHP2.16 billion ($38.4 million) for the period, compared to PHP79.1 million in the first six months of 2021.
