Benjamin Diokno, secretary of the Philippines’ Department of Finance, supports the privatization of casinos owned and operated by the country’s gaming regulator. Other lawmakers are also calling for the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) to sell off its casinos to avoid what they see as an inherent conflict of interest.
“PAGCOR is a regulator, but at the same time it operates gambling companies—that’s wrong,” Diokno said. “It’s like saying that you have a central bank and yet you’re also running a bank. That cannot work. We can privatize its operations so PAGCOR can stick to being a regulator.” PAGCOR operates 47 casinos under the Casinos Filipino brand.
According to GamblingNews.com, House Speaker Rufus Rodriguez has proposed a different plan, establishing a new casino regulator and relegating PAGCOR to operator alone.
Privatization of PAGCOR’s casino assets isn’t a new idea. A similar plan was floated by former chairwoman and CEO Andrea Domingo, who oversaw the regulatory agency under former president Rodrigo Duterte. In 2018, Domingo told Inside Asian Gaming that a planned sale of the regulator’s casino assets was dropped because the venues were making so much money. In 2019, PAGCOR casinos generated more than PHP56 billion (US$1 billion) for the Philippine government.
