Philippine lottery firm Pacific Online Systems Corp saw a 17 percent drop in its revenues during the first half of the year, totaling some PHP259.1 million, amongst a strong increase in expenses and a transition from the legacy lotto operating system.
The results also indicate that the group saw a net loss of some PHP200K for the six-month period, down from profit of PHP145.5 million in 1H23.
The group attributes the major shift in revenue and profit trends to ‘the transition from the legacy system to the nationwide lottery system under its joint operation, PinoyLotto Technologies Corp’.
The group also suffered a loss due to the delisting of majority shareholder Premium Leisure Corp. this year.
In particular, the group noted high depreciation expenses (totaling PHP75.3 million in 1H24) ‘in line with the depreciation of the new equipment deployed, as well as higher variable costs such as communications and repairs and maintenance in line with the requirements of the PCSO (Philippines Charity Sweepstakes Operator) and the PLS (Philippine Lottery System)’.
PCSO came under fire after requests for a congressional inquiry into its deal with the PCSO – based upon a one-year trial of a web-based application betting platform to be operated by POSC for the PCSO.
The group still operated the PinoyLotto’s PLS for the PCSO from October of last year, incurring expenses of PHP251.7 million during the first half of this year.
Back in May, POSC was the only bidder for the operation of the PCSO’s five-year license of its e-lotto program, getting a PHP4.08 billion contract in June of this year. But this was only under a trial period, and ended on July 12th, after the PCSO wanted to make ‘the e-lotto services better and as it transitions to a new platform’.
