A Philippine agency overseeing state-owned entities may submit in August its recommendations on the long-standing plan for the country’s gaming regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), to shed the gaming-operator role and privatise its Casino Filipino chain of venues.
That is according to a Friday report of comments by Alejandro Tengco (pictured in a file photo), Pagcor’s chairman and chief executive.
The Philippine Star news outlet indirectly cited Mr Tengco saying that the Governance Commission for Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations (GCG), the government body overseeing state-owned entities, was expected to submit in August its recommendation to the Office of the President regarding Pagcor’s proposal to separate its regulatory and operating functions.
“The Office of the President will study that so it will be at the end of this year. It will be done through an executive order,” Mr Tengco reportedly said.
Another news outlet, BusinessWorld, quoted Mr Tengco stating in relation to the same topic: “I think this will be my legacy to be able to decouple and Pagcor will only be a regulator.”
BusinessWorld also cited on Friday comments from Marius P. Corpus, chair of the GCG, on the Casino Filipino chain’s privatisation.
Mr Corpus was quoted saying progress could come “hopefully this year”. He added: “It still has to go through some processes, like review, to make sure there are no mistakes.”
He further noted: “More or less it is done. But I do not want to give a specific deadline or timeline, but it will be this year.”
Once the proposal was approved, Pagcor’s reorganisation would be implemented in phases, Mr Corpus said. He added there had been interest from existing integrated resort operators regarding Pagcor’s Casino Filipino chain.
2Q and 2H industry outlook
The two news outlets had also carried comments from Mr Tengco regarding the second-quarter gross gaming revenue (GGR) performance for the Philippine gaming industry, which includes domestic online gaming as well as land-based commercial and public casinos. Official figures for the three months to June 30 have yet to be released.
Second-quarter Philippine gaming revenues were likely to have remained weak because the Middle East conflict had affected tourism and consumer spending, Mr Tengco suggested.
He was cited saying: “It’s bad. Why? There are no tourists, no VIP players because of the war.”
The Pagcor chief said the conflict had also affected lower-income domestic consumers, weighing on spending in the electronic gaming segment.
He suggested second-quarter revenues “will likely be the same” as the first quarter, “but compared to last year, it will be much lower.”
In May, Pagcor announced that first-quarter GGR – including non-casino operations – amounted to PHP87.60 billion (US$1.42 billion), 15.9-percent lower than in the prior-year period.
On July 7, the Philippine News Agency had cited unofficial figures for the first five months this year – though attributed to the Department of Tourism – suggesting Philippine tourism “remained resilient despite the ongoing energy crisis and a decline in the South Korean market”.
The report said the Philippines recorded 2.74 million foreign visitors from January to May.
Regarding the GGR outlook for the second half, Mr Tengco was quoted as saying: “Hopefully, now that fuel prices have gone down, the third and fourth quarters will improve.”
He suggested electronic gaming was likely to be the main growth driver in the second half.
Mr Tengco’s comments were made before the United States resumed a sustained bombing campaign against Iran in midweek, that also saw Iran launch strikes against a number of oil- and gas-producing Gulf states.
In late June, Maybank Investment Bank said inflation and a lack of VIP players was likely to keep Philippines land-based gaming pressured in the second half this year.
