The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) on Tuesday said revenues from online gaming operations will likely reach P6 billion after the rollout of a third party audit system.
Pagcor Chairman and CEO Andrea D. Domingo said a third-party audit system, which monitors the operations of the 53 Philippine Online Gaming Operators (Pogo), will enable Pagcor to tract the revenues generated by the Pogos in real time.
“Currently, we have 53 [online gaming licensees] and about 153 support service providers. And we are assured that this year, after the third service provider completes its work, we will be able to double our income from offshore [gaming],” Domingo said during the Asean Gaming Summit at the Conrad Hotel in Pasay City on Tuesday.
Last year revenues from Pogo reached P3.9 billion, and Pagcor expects to double the revenues this year.
The third-party audit system will adopt mirrored applications both for operators and for the respective business-process outsourcing (BPOs) centers to enable Pagcor to monitor revenues and operations simultaneously.
“This means we will have an independent third-party auditor who would put mirroring applications not only in the operators but also in the service providers, so we will know exactly how much is going in,” she added.
License fees charged to each Pogo operator amount to $200,000, while the application and processing fees cost $15,000. On top of the fees, Pagcor requires operators to put $250,000 cash fund just in case they can’t pay bets that win.
“So upfront we already require $500,000, we are actually eliminating the small fly by night operators. We do not want that because that is what gives the industry a really bad name, especially in the anti-money laundering community,” she said.
Jose S. Tria Jr., Pagcor special assistant to the gaming regulator chairman and CEO, said the audit platform will also help boost the number of applications received by the Pagcor for online gaming operations.
Pagcor had collected over P1 billion from licensing and processing fees when it issued 35 offshore gaming licenses in 2016. From each licensee, application and processing fees amounted to $50,000 for e-casino, and $40,000 for sports betting.
Upon approval of the license, a fee of $200,000 for e-casino and $150,000 for sports betting is added.
Tria said an estimated P3 billion in taxes can be collected through the issuance of the Pogo alone.
Pagcor remits to the Bureau of Internal Revenue 5 percent of its earnings from its operations.