The Philippines’ gross gaming revenue (GGR) growth is “still filled by the regulatory framework,” Daniel Cheng told AGB on the sidelines of the ASEAN Gaming Summit.
Currently, the Philippines is under increasing pressure to be removed from the gray list of the global anti-money laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF). In this context, Daniel Cheng believes that the country’s gaming growth still faces uncertainties.
“The Philippine regulatory framework now, compared to Macau, Singapore, and Malaysia, is less stringent because they still allow VIP rooms. They still allow proxy gambling.”
Analyzing the actual gaming revenue, remote betting through phone calls continues to contribute significantly to Filipino casinos. In this sense, the Philippines has been “the star” in the past few years in terms of growth.
Cheng considers that part of the reason is credit to the quite good new gaming products. However, the current regulation that allows many of the junkets that have to run away from Macau and Cambodia to find something in the Philippines is another reason for the growth.
In this context, gaming experts believe that the projected Philippines’ GGR growth for the next couple of years “may come true if that regulation remains the same as now.”
Earlier this month, Alejandro H Tengco, Chairman, and CEO of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), expressed his confidence that the country will overtake Singapore next year as Asia’s second-largest gambling hub after Macau.
The Philippines’ gaming regulator anticipates that its GGR will soar to a record-breaking PHP 336 billion ($6.1 billion) this year, surpassing the previous year’s PHP 285 billion ($5.14 billion).
On the other side, the country has been included on the gray list of FATF due to issues with junket operators, the lack of prosecutions, and investigations into money laundering and terrorist financing.
The longer the country stays on the gray list, the higher the opportunity for it to be blacklisted. In this context, Philippine President Marcos ordered in January that the country should exit from the gray list by October this year.
