Casinos too profitable to forfeit
Last year, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. announced that 2018 was the year it would start a divestiture of the casino properties it both owns and regulates.
Now PAGCOR Chairwoman and CEO Andrea Domingo says that plan has been shelved, at least for now. Speaking to Inside Asian Gaming, Domingo said the government is in no hurry to sell off the casinos, for one very good reason: they’re making too much money.
The PAGCOR-owned gaming halls, which operate under the Casino Filipino brand, “are holding up quite well,” said Domingo. “Last year they contributed PHP22 billion (US$405.5 million) to our PHP60 billion earnings, and this year we’re looking at about PHP26 billion to PHP27 billion.”
She said the casinos could remain in the regulator’s asset portfolio “for the next few years, because they’re still profitable.” She explained that 100 percent of GGR from PAGCOR-owned “goes directly to the government,” while the other integrated resorts in the country contribute less than 20 percent.
“It will take five years for a new IR to contribute that amount, which automatically lessens our net contribution to the national government by PHP22 billion for at least for the next 10 years,” Domingo concluded.
The plan to sell off the casinos was first announced in 2016 as a way to raise money and to avoid conflicts of interest. Domingo told IAG that no discussions with prospective buyers have taken place.
“The issues that are being raised about PAGCOR owning casinos as well as regulating privately owned casinos—that it’s a conflict of interest—this doesn’t actually happen,” she insisted. “Being a government office, I have to go through procurement law, which is a nightmare. So I think the privatization thing, there’s really nothing to sell because all the casinos we own and operate are in venues that are not owned by us but only leased by us.”
