Pagcor’s strong expectations for 2014 won’t come without any challenges and no one knows that more than the government agency itself.
The state-run agency is shooting to generate Php45.47 billion for the year on the strength of higher gaming income and regulatory fees from the new private casinos rising up in Entertainment City, but even with strong revenues from its own casinos, Pagcor understands that these new privately-owned joints are going to make it a lot tougher for them to generate their own revenues.
“We hope to continue Pagcor’s good performance in 2014,” Pagcor chairman and CEO Cristino Naguiat Jr. said, as quoted by the Manila Bulletin. “We know that it will not be easy because competition is getting stiffer. But just like what I keep telling our employees, we always have to do our best so we can reap the fruits of our labor.”
Touching sentiments from the man-in-charge, but one that comes with a hard truth. After all, 2013 already proved to be a down year for the agency with revenues of Php40.52 billion falling 5.5 percent short of the Php42.9 billion target gains the agency had hoped to get. And that was with just one new casino – Solaire Manila – in operation. With City of Dreams Manila expected to open later this year, that’s another privately-owned casino that’s going to eat away at Pagcor’s revenue pie.
The government-owned agency understands the consequences of losing its gambling monopoly in the Philippines. That’s the price it had to pay for opening up the country to privately-owned casinos. But the agency remains optimistic because there really is no other way to go about it. It has to come to grips with the situation that not every peso that comes out of the pockets of people who gamble in the Philippines will go straight to Pagcor.
Yet Pagcor remains optimistic, even if it means having to sweat it out to attain the lofty goals it has set for itself.
