Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JUL 2020年7月 亞博匯 26 COVER STORY The Philippines embodies Asia’s prevailing attitude toward online gaming. Its citizens can gamble in casinos, play bingo and other games in betting shops and wager on sports in person, by phone and online. But online casino gaming is reserved for overseas players. Through licensed POGOs – Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators – regulator PAGCOR collected fees of Php6.4 billion (US$126 million) last year, suggesting gross gaming revenue in excess of US$5 billion, more than the US$4.3 billion GGR for Philippine brick-and- mortar casinos. BEGGARS BAN, QUIT Asia’s prevailing beggar-thy-neighbor iGaming has its limits. In Cambodia, Sihanoukville saw billions invested on the foundation of online gaming primarily targeting mainland China players, whose participation is illegal under Chinese law. When Beijing objected, Cambodia had no choice but to listen to its main economic benefactor and ban online gaming at the end of 2019, stopping the vast majority of those investments. In the long run, it will take domestic play to make online gaming sustainable inAsia. If Asian governments decide to permit online gaming in their own markets, successful models abound. “New Jersey since late 2013 has shown that online gaming can be effectively regulated by the state and responsibly offered by the operators,” Spectrum Gaming Group Managing Director Fred Gushin, a former New Jersey regulator, says. Pennsylvania and Delaware legalized online casino gaming more recently and other US states are considering it. New Jersey levies online gaming tax of 15% plus an additional 2.5% investment alternative tax, compared with 8% and 1.25% for brick-and-mortar play. Online licensees must be affiliated with a physical casino, but a casino may have multiple online affiliates. Servers and other internet game equipment must also be located on casino premises.