The Philippine casino sector produced gross gaming revenue (GGR) of PHP59.26 billion (US$1.06 billion) in the three months to March 31, up by 80.9 percent from the prior-year period. The tally rose by 5.8 percent sequentially.
That is according to data released on Thursday by the country’s casino regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor).
The casino GGR figure excludes revenue from bingo operations and electronic games parlours.
The private-sector casino resorts in Manila’s Entertainment City produced about 76.7 percent of all industry GGR in the first quarter, i.e., PHP45.44 billion. The figure was up 69.0 percent in year-on-year terms, and 3.1 percent sequentially.
The cluster of commercial casinos in the Clark Freeport Zone, also on the country’s main island, Luzon, generated PHP8.29 billion GGR in the first three months this year, up 175.1 percent from a year ago, and a 22.2-percent increase from the preceding three months.
At Pagcor-operated casinos, aggregate revenue (excluding in-house bingo) in the three months to March 31 was PHP5.10 billion, up 96.2 percent from the prior-year quarter. It was up 6.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2022.
The authorities in the Philippines had started easing COVID-19-related restrictions from March 2022. As of March 1 that year, Metro Manila was placed under “alert level 1”, the lowest level of countermeasure against Covid-19, which allowed business to operate at full capacity.
A fortnight ago, state-run Pagcor reported net income of approximately PHP1.34 billion for the first quarter of 2023. It compared with net income of about PHP624.7 million in the prior-year period.
Pagcor’s total revenue rose by 42.6 percent year-on-year, to PHP17.71 billion. Revenue from gaming operations in the first three months of 2023 increased by 49.4 percent year-on-year, to just above PHP16.88 billion.
The Philippine casino sector produced GGR of just above PHP184.00 billion in full-year 2022, up 90.6 percent from 2021.
