Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING OCTOBER 2018 36 INSIGHTS into that and the contribution to the national government every year, if you take this out and go with 19.5%, 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 the next 10 years. AWS: PAGCOR introduced its new Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) regime last year. How is that playing out for you? AD: It’s playing out very well. It has its own problems but by being strict, by being upfront and straight about managing it, like any professional business, I think that makes it easier. AWS: What was the rationale behind it. Going back a little bit, what is the rationale for introducing this new regime for offshore operators? AD: It was because it came to the attention of the President – and he called our attention to it – that there is a lot of illegal offshore gaming. We heard that there were about 200 operators and they should have been contributing Php56 million yearly to the government. We have 55 operators, we’ve just started and they’re already contributing this year about Php6 billion. So where did the rest of the money go? But the worst thing was that we were being discussed in the gaming world as the illegal gaming capital of the world – and that is really, really bad. That’s what we wanted to fight. So we introduced the POGO license so the illegal operators might have a venue to legalize their operations. But we’re very strict. We do not accept everybody who applies. They have to meet all of our requirements which include a US$250,000 application fee, another US$250,000 cash bond we can use if they welch on the bets of those who won or if they did not pay the government what is due. The other thing is that the operators under POGO are now situated in the Philippines and are responsible for their operations because before, those who were authorized to conduct gaming, the operator was outside. They only used the service provider so there was nobody responsible. They also signed a waiver that the AMLC (Anti-Money Laundering Council Philippines) may look into their accounts. AWS: How well was such a big shake-up received by the industry? AD: They were happy, actually. The ones who really want to be legitimate, the ones who have companies that are listed in their countries, they were happy. Now PAGCOR is the face of POGO and offshore gaming and any complaint or any problem they come across, they can now approach us and we regulate. We try to make it right. AWS: Has the POGO regime played out the way you thought it was going to play out? Has the result been successful from your perspective? AD: I think from our perspective, yes. We probably have covered maybe about 85% of the illegal operators, but you know, we have a very good relationship with the Philippine National Police now, the National Bureau of Investigation and the President assigned a person who would look after all of this. Now we are able, with the Bureau of Immigration, to really raid the illegal gambling operators and actually stop their operations. EDITOR’S NOTE: Ms Domingo politely declined to answer questions directly related to Landing International’s rejected Manila land deal. Visit asgam.com for background articles. We’re not competing with the IRs. We cannot compete. But we’re keeping our market because we have a niche in the gaming industry. Manila's Entertainment City precinct in Parañaque