The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), the country’s regulator, has witnessed a “sharp decline” in its income since August, which the body attributes to the delinking of online gambling platforms from electronic wallets (e-wallets) and a slight decline in the number of new players.
That is according to comments made on Wednesday by Pagcor’s assistant vice president for offshore gaming licensing, Jessa Fernandez, during a hearing of the House Committee on Games and Amusements in the country’s Congress.
In August, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Philippines’ central bank, ordered providers of e-wallets and other digital payment systems to remove links that provided access from their interfaces to online gambling platforms in the country.
Ms Fernandez said that since the order by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the agency’s revenues had dropped by as much as 49 percent, according to local media reports.
“Now that we are implementing an initial minimum deposit, we have also observed that more players or patrons are refusing to continue playing with legal online gaming operators,” she added.
In August, members of the Philippine Senate began discussing stricter regulation of the country’s online gambling sector, including bills proposing a ban. Last month, Senator Erwin Tulfo called for “updates on the online gambling issue” in the country.
The Philippines’ Department of Economy, Planning and Development said, via its director, that it supports either a complete ban on online gambling or, if not, strict regulation of the industry. The department stated that online gaming’s contribution to the country’s economy is “minimal”, at just 0.37 percent of gross domestic product.
Pagcor’s Ms Fernandez, however, argued on Wednesday that revenues generated from online gaming are used by Pagcor to fund a number of government-run programmes, including ones related to healthcare. She said that a total ban on online gaming would reduce Pagcor’s contributions to such programmes.
Gross gaming revenue (GGR) from the electronic games sector reached PHP154.51 billion (US$2.64 billion currently) in full-year 2024, up from PHP58.16 billion in the previous year. The PHP154.51 billion amount accounted for nearly half of the gaming industry’s aggregate GGR of PHP372.33 billion last year.
According to Pagcor data, the electronic games sector produced GGR of PHP114.83 billion in the first half of this year, accounting for almost 53.5% of total GGR during the period.
Pagcor has previously stressed the importance of public revenue derived from legal online gaming activities in funding education, healthcare, and community development initiatives across the country.
Alejandro Tengco, chairman and chief executive of Pagcor, has stated that tighter control, not a total ban, should be the way forward for the nation’s online gambling sector.
