GGRAsia – Pagcor lets LRWC resume operations at bingo parlours

Pagcor lets LRWC resume operations at bingo parlours

Sep 26, 2016 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

Philippine gaming investor Leisure and Resorts World Corp (LRWC) said on Monday that one of its subsidiaries has been authorised to resume operations at some gaming parlours that offer electronic games for bingo.

“AB Leisure Exponent Inc … on 24 September 2016 received via email, notices from [the] Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) of the approval by Pagcor … to recall the revocation to operate eBingo,” said LRWC in a filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange, referring to a decision by the country’s gaming regulator.

“Twenty eBingo sites have resumed its operations by virtue of the aforesaid approval,” the company added.

LRWC had said on September 8 that two of its wholly-owned units had been separately ordered by the Philippine gaming regulator to cease current operation of some electronic games parlours because of alleged non-compliance with “distance restriction guidelines”. One of the orders required AB Leisure to stop operations at 36 sites offering electronic bingo games.

LRWC said in Monday’s filing, regarding the authorisation to resume operations at some of its eBingo sites: “The approval was based on the recommendation of Pagcor’s Gaming Licensing and Development Department and the legal opinion of its Corporate and Legal Services Department to honour the licences of operators whose gaming sites are located inside malls, arcades and hotels, and consider them exempted from distance requirements.”

The firm noted that Pagcor’s board of directors “allowed the resumption of eBingo operations until the respective expiration of the licences of the sites”.

LRWC said Pagcor is “still in the process of studying whether they will permanently maintain the exemption of malls, arcades and hotels from the distance requirements”.

The move against some of LRWC’s domestic gaming operations earlier this month came only weeks after the regulator decided not to renew the gaming licence of PhilWeb Corp, which offered Internet-delivered casino games in the Philippines. PhilWeb has since stopped its operations and appointed a new chairman as it seeks a deal to rescue the company.