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Rising trend: Filipinos embrace online casinos

Business

Rising trend: Filipinos embrace online casinos

Pagcor: E-gaming activities 'phenomenal' in 2023

By Chino S. Leyco

The popularity of online gaming and casinos has surged significantly, with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) reporting a near doubling of revenue from electronic games of chance over the past year.

Alejandro H. Tengco, Pagcor chairman and chief executive officer, said on Monday, Feb. 12, that the Philippine e-gaming sector had “a banner year” in 2023 with gross gaming revenues (GGR) amounting to P58.16 billion.

“There was a phenomenal rise of over 90 percent in online gaming activities in 2023 compared to the previous year,” Tengco said in a statement.

Total GGRs from e-games, which also includes e-bingo, specialty games and sports betting, soared by 92.32 percent between January and December last year from P30.24 billion in 2022.

“The E-Games contribution to 2023 GGR is also a new record, surpassing the previous high of P32.24 billion posted in 2019 before the pandemic outbreak,” Pagcor said.

Earlier, Tengco said Pagcor reached "another milestone in 2023" with more than 1,000 licensed e-gaming sites, with more applications in the pipeline.

“Because of the policy changes implemented by the current management, there was a considerable increase in gaming sites. We also approved reductions in (licensing) rates that contributed to the spike in approved sites,” Tengco said.

“The E-games sector’s notable performance positively impacted not only the local gaming industry but also PAGCOR’s revenue generation efforts,”he said.

More policy tweaks – including further lowering licensing rates – and the growing integration of technology in gaming should allow the E-Games sector to continue fueling the growth of the local gaming industry with its projected P61.75 billion in revenues in 2024.

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Pagcor chair and CEO Alejandro H. Tengco Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. e-gaming online casino

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