Philippines-based PhilWeb Corp confirmed in a filing on Tuesday that it has received a provisional certificate of accreditation from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), the country’s gaming regulator.
The accreditation as an Electronic Gaming System service provider puts PhilWeb a step closer to resuming operations of its legacy e-Games parlours.
“Pagcor will soon conduct an inspection of PhilWeb’s servers and gaming facilities as required under the accreditation rules, after which it may then issue a notice to operate,” the company stated in a press release included in a filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
In August 2016, Pagcor had said it would not be renewing a licence PhilWeb had held for a network of e-Games parlours in that country. PhilWeb had been operating a chain of 286 such Pagcor-licensed outlets, according to company data disclosed around that time.
Since the non-renewal of its former licence, PhilWeb has seen a shake-up of its leadership, and has issued several filings mentioning proposals for a return to gaming sector operations.
“We are grateful to Pagcor … for their faith in our company and for giving us the opportunity to deliver services to their electronic gaming operators once again,” said PhilWeb president Dennis Valdes in a statement included in the release.
Also quoted in the release, PhilWeb chairman Gregorio Araneta said he was “very confident that PhilWeb can now go back to doing what it does best, which is to be a service provider for electronic games, and in so doing, can contribute a significant amount of revenue to Pagcor”.
According to Philweb’s data, the company remitted more than PHP2 billion (US$38.9 million) to Pagcor in 2015, the last full year of operations before the contract with Pagcor expired in August 2016.
