Dominguez: Sell-off will take a few years
In 2018, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. will undertake a long-planned divestiture of casino properties it both owns and regulates.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III says the government expects to sell 17 of 46 casinos owned by PAGCOR. “Those casinos being operated directly by PAGCOR should be privatized first,” Dominguez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. First the government will audit each property, assessing their capacities and business volumes, numbers of gaming tables and visitors, etc., to set the valuations, according to GGRAsia.
“That should be done one by one because every casino is very different,” Dominguez said. “Then we’ll figure out the method of privatization for each venue.”
PAGCOR directly operates a portfolio of state-run casinos and oversees a number of private-sector ones. Its own brand, Casino Filipino, operates in 13 locations across the country and has 35 satellite sites as well. A plan to unload PAGCOR casinos was first announced in August 2016, shortly after the election of President Rodrigo Duterte. Last May, the government amended the 1976 presidential decree that created PAGCOR with a bill declaring the regulator “should cede its role as operator of all gambling and gaming activities.”
Dominguez said the sell-off could take several years to complete, but will be better for the venues in the end. “I think there’s no way they can compete if we don’t privatize. They might actually lose their customers. We might as well do it now.”
PAGCOR’s profits for the first half of 2017 were up 24.8 percent year-on-year, even though it lost approximately PHP 400 million (US$7.9 million) when it suspended Resorts World Manila’s gaming license for three weeks in June. That resort, located in Entertainment City, closed following the deadly attack by a gunman who started a fire in the casino, killing more than 30 patrons and employees.
