Don’t worry everyone, the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) is doing just fine. After a public back and forth on the profitability of one of its casinos, the regulator-operator outfit has announced impressive results for the first half of 2019.
As announced on their website, PAGCOR brought in PHP36.57 billion (US$715.7 million) in gaming income for the first six months of the year. That represents a 9.3% increase over the same period in 2018. This resulted in a PHP3.08 billion (US$60 million) total net income for the period, a decline but only due to a land sale to Bloomberry Resorts in 2018.
Breaking down the numbers, licensed casinos, such as Solaire, Resorts World and Okada Manila, brought in PHP13.67 billion (US$270 million) for the period. Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) brought in PHP2.67 billion (US$52 million). The rest came from their own casinos directly.
PAGCOR paid a total of PHP19.2 billion (US$380 million) in taxes during the period, including PHP17.34 billion (US$340 million) directly to the Philippines Treasury, as they are required to pay 50% of their earnings to the country by law.
Despite an increase in earnings, the company will be pleased with bringing in a healthy increase in net income for the year. This could in large part be due to the success of casinos in the private sector like Okada Manila. That resort has seen a 44.7% increase in gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the same period this year, bringing in $107 million more than it had in the same period in 2018.
This also serves as a hearty rebuke to the Commission on Audit’s recent criticism of PAGCOR’s Casino Filipino operation, which they reported had been losing money for the past five years. The operator disputed that report, citing a bad accounting of a defunct casino bringing the whole bottom line down.
Now that they can also point to an overall very healthy start to 2019, PAGCOR is riding high. They’re rolling in the pesos and ready to rake in even more profits from gambling, as President Duterte has asked them to do.
