Philippine operator-regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) will reduce the fees charged to online gaming providers to 35 percent in March., Chairman Alejandro H. Tengco, confirmed in an interview during ICE London.
“In terms of online gaming regulations and structure, we did look into the existing structure and regulations and made necessary changes. The most important of which is bringing down the license fees being paid to PAGCOR from a high of 50 percent to today’s 42.5 percent,” Tengco stated in an interview at the event.
“Come March we will bring it down further to 35 percent. We want to encourage more investors and applications for new licensees. I believe we will be able to encourage new players in the market”.
The Filipino casino industry regulator is also currently pushing for lower taxes on winnings and reduced documentary stamp taxes.
Tengco commented that since being first appointed PAGCOR chairman in 2022 up to mid-2023, the regulator attempted to “go over and refine all existing structures and regulations” to make them more “attune with the times”.
“We are regulating quite a number of integrated resorts in Manila. We did some changes and made some adjustments in the previous structure because we want to encourage not only the existing IR and licensees but new players to come in,” Tengco added.
The PAGCOR chairman stated that as the only Southeast Asian jurisdiction that basically regulates both land base casinos and online gaming licenses, the Philippines should use this advantage to attract more investment to the country’s online gaming industry.
In a panel discussion before the interview, Tengco also confirmed that the operator would privatize in the fourth quarter of 2025.
PAGCOR has reported a total income of PHP73.11 billion ($1.3 billion) from its gaming operations in 2023, a robust year-on-year increase of 32.8 percent.
