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Gaming revenues of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) are expected to decline by half from P30 billion last year to about P16 billion this year following the lockdown that has affected 540 of 830 gaming sites in the metropolis, according to Pagcor chairman and CEO Andrea Domingo.
The challenging environment has thinned out the gaming agency’s help to the Universal Health Care, which before the pandemic amounted to P25 billion but this year will just amount to P5 billion, Domingo said in the virtual Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum even as she vowed not to retrench its employees and have their compensation intact.
In the forum headed by Philippine Star’s Marichu Villanueva, Domingo ticked off the mounting losses that casinos have come to grips with due to the severe lockdown. This is why, she said, the gaming agency is seeking a relaxation of rules on casinos from the IATF since gaming areas observe strictly the health protocols and that no gamer has been reported sick.
She said that with the lockdown, casinos are losing P13 billion a year as compared to the pre=pandemic revenues of P80 billion that allowed Pagcor to chip in to the government’s COVID-19 response where it remitted P12 billion in dividends from out of its 2019 earnings.
Allowing the casinos to operate at 50 percent capacity with MECQ, 70 percent GCQ, and 90 to 100 percent at MPCQ would allow the casinos to recoup their losses, increase government revenues through taxes and bring back lost jobs.
She said at 50 percent capacity, the casinos will look empty due to the social distancing of one to 1.5 meters away but at least the revenues could come in. After all, she said, casinos have seen to it that air com
es one way and exits the other way, part of the health protocols that the gaming sites have put in place to ensure the safety of gamers.
On top of this, Domingo said that there are doctors on hand and that the employees go through PCR swab tests which are “done again after six months.” So far, she added, there have been no reported sick gamer or employee at casinos due to the stringent health set-ups to prevent Covid-19 transmissions.
She bared that Solaire is contributing 20,000 vaccines for casino employees and their beneficiaries while the City of Dreams is also set to buy vaccines for their employees.
In the case of POGOs, Domingo said that some of the POGOs that left the country have gone to Myanmar, Vietnam and Malaysia but there are still POGOs here who, while still closed, still await the possible relaxation of the lockdown rules. She said that one problem with POGOs is that when the employees leave, the operators are left with no choice but to limit operations due to a lack of Mandarin fluent employees.
Domingo also said that Pagcor, which has been given by President Duterte the mandate to oversee online sabong, sees additional revenues of about P250 to P350 million a month from the two firms that have registered with the gaming agency. She said another four companies have applied with Pagcor to conduct their own online sabong.
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