The implementation of community quarantine measures across the Philippines’ main island of Luzon in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic has sparked renewed calls to sell off the 47 casinos owned by gaming regulator PAGCOR.
Citing figures announced last year suggesting the government could collect around Php300 billion in additional annual revenue by privatization, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon pointed to PAGCOR’s casino operations as well as the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) as state assets that could be immediately sold to help fund the fight against COVID-19.
“The government does not have to look far to raise additional revenues. There are ‘low-hanging fruits’ the government can immediately tap to provide the much needed resources for our country to survive this pandemic,” CNN Philippines reported Drilon as stating.
His comments come after the Department of Finance promised last September to revisit a 2016 proposal to privatize PAGCOR’s casinos, leaving it to focus solely on regulatory duties instead. The proposal also called for privatization of the Small-Town Lottery (STL).
PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Andrea Domingo told Inside Asian Gaming in 2018 that sale of the regulator’s casinos had been put on hold due to the growing gaming revenues they had been generating.
“I think for the next few years, because they’re still profitable – because the PAGCOR owned and operated casinos, the GGR they yield goes directly to the government, 100%,” Domingo said at the time.
“With the IRs, our share of the GGR is about 19.5% so if you look into that and the contribution to the national government every year, if you take this out it will take five years for a new IR to contribute that amount which automatically lessens our net contribution to the national government by Php22 billion for at least for the next 10 years.”
RelatedPosts
