The Philippines Betting on Casinos Pays Off in 1st Quarter

The Philippines Betting on Casinos Pays Off in 1st Quarter

The Philippines continues on betting on casinos to bring in revenues for the national government. The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp released its first-quarter report that showed the casino sector generated $1 billion in gross gaming revenue.

However, PAGCOR didn’t provide a year-on-year comparison of its gross gaming revenue. Its website doesn’t have any data on previous GGR reports. As a result, it is hard to compare the current result with the previous year.

The agency did provide a report for the overall gambling industry in the country. According to the report, it got a net income of PHP1.55 billion for the first quarter of 2019. In fact, it was 9.5 percent higher than the previous year, according to a betting software expert.

PAGCOR said that revenue from gambling operations improved by 15.6 percent year-over-year to almost PHP18.3 billion.

Betting on Casinos

The Philippines Betting on Casinos Pays Off in 1st QuarterAside from being the licensor and regulator of casinos, PAGCOR is an operator of public-sector casinos. However, it is the private-sector casinos that generated most of the gross gaming revenue. In fact, they earn a lot on junket play, electronic gaming machines, and mass table games, according to a report received by a bookie pay per head.

Private-sector casinos found in the Entertainment City generated almost PHP39.8 billion in the first quarter. That’s 76 percent of the casino GGR for the quarter. Mass table games earned PHP16.6 billion. Junket play earned PHP14.1 billion. Lastly, electronic machines earned PHP12.5 billion.

In comparison, PAGCOR’s Casino Filipino casinos only generated PHP9.4 billion in total. Electronic gaming parlors brought in profits of PHP7.5 billion for a total of PHP60 billion for all gaming in the Philippines.

In 2018, PAGCOR reported GGR of PHP187.5 billion, which was an improvement of 22.9 percent from the previous year. With the current numbers, it looks like betting casinos paid a dividend for the Philippines. In fact, a pay per head provider even said that casino gaming in the country is growing faster than in Macau, Singapore, and Las Vegas.