The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) boosted its contributions to state coffers in the first 11 months of last year, but they continued to lag behind pre-pandemic figures.

Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that the national government's portion of Pagcor's earnings rose by 37 percent to P30.58 billion from January to November, compared to P22.38 billion in the same period in 2022.

The 11 month tally was also already double the P15.03 billion full-year program set by the Department of Finance (DOF) for Pagcor.

However, despite this substantial increase, the total remittance at end-November still fell short of the P32.3 billion recorded in the same period in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic struck four years ago.

In November alone, Pagcor remitted P3.4 billion to the Treasury bureau, an increase of 42 percent from P2.4 billion in the same month of 2022.

The DOF is now projecting that the national government's take from Pagcor's income will reach P29.87 billion in 2024.

As mandated by law, Pagcor, the government's third largest revenue-generating agency, must allocate 50 percent of its net revenue to the Treasury bureau.

On Monday, Jan. 16, Alejandro H. Tengco, Pagcor chairman and chief executive officer, said that the local gaming industry's gross revenues soared by 33 percent to reach an all-time high of P285.27 billion in 2023.

This figure surpassed the gross gaming revenues (GGR) of P214.34 billion in 2022 and also exceeded Pagcor's target of P273 billion for the year.

Furthermore, Tengco said it was an 11 percent increase over the previous high of P256.49 billion recorded in 2019, just before the Covid-19 crisis led to movement restrictions and temporary closures of gaming operations.

Tengco said that Pagcor aims to achieve P336.38 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2024.