Philippine Gaming Industry

Despite the surge of Pagcor income that has succeeded immensely in supporting the cash-strapped political sympathies, some(prenominal) lawmakers, non presidential term organizations and specially the religious sector ar still securely against government pursue in the business of direct gambling casinos. Edward queer, spokesman for Pagcor chairman Efraim Genuino, told The Manila Times that premiere and fore close, one thing that people should remember is that Pagcor is a creation of law. Pagcor, a government-owned and controlled corporation was established to regulate all games of chance in the Philippines.It was natural in 1976, created by hence-President Marcos to oversee the operation of looseness casinos, to generate finances for the governments developmental projects and to help bank check illegal gambling. An unaudited Pagcor spread abroad shows that Pagcor, a vital arm of the government in nation building, clear P25. 4 one thousand million in income making it one of the biggest earners for 2006. So is Pagcor a proof that casinos and legalized period of play can be a valu sufficient line of government funding and an effective engine for national development? We argon created by law, we are just following what the law orders us to do.It is non a question that is up to us to decide. We must obey the law, tabby said. Under the law, he explained, Pagcor is required to run casinos. He said that the most important thing about the government running casinos is that all bills that generated from Pagcor goes back to the government 100 percentage. We are operating the casinos but here(predicate) is where everything lies 100 percent of the income that we generate goes back to the government, King said. The state-run romp firm surpassed its earlier record-breaking P21. 9- one thousand million totality annual income in 2004 and breached its tar devil income of P23. 1 cardinal for 2005. It surpassed the P24. 5 billion tar consider for 2006 as well. Pagcors 2005 total income of P23. 4 billion was 6. 8 percent higher than the P21. 9 billion it posted a year before. The issue of privatizing Pagcor is also very controversial, with several lawmakers pushing for it and even to a greater extent congressmen against it. King said that while the incite can be considered purely from the noble and idealistic view saddle that government should not be in the business of gambling, one has to think from the point of view of generating notes for the government.He said that if the government would privatize Pagcor, then all income goes to the private sector leaving only a modest amount in taxes being paid to the government coffers. If you give Pagcor to the private, they go out just be paying taxes. There is a huge going onward estimateween a fraction of income from taxes to 100 percent, King said. An official from Pagcor who pass along anonymity even claimed that perhaps the lawmakers have their own personal agenda. peradvent ure they want to be the ones who will obtain and operate Pagcor, they said. Its simple, privatize Pagcor they get the income, the lawmakers may perhaps be getting their own kickbacks from certain manse groups who want Pagcor for their personal purpose, the official said. King merely laughed at the account of the official adding that he did not want to comment, not wanting to get into trouble with the congressmen. King, however, added that if Pagcor is run privately, all measures such as that of the anti coin laundering major power be removed and the private personalities owning it may use the gaming for the insalubrious purposes that the antimoney-laundering council wants to prevent. Pagcor is created by law with the purpose of bringing much needed currency to the government.Certainly if you are run privately mahirap bantayan. How can you impose code on it which means how can we protect ourselves now from money laundering, how do we prevent this money going out of the country , he said. We are able to ensure that these things do not happen since the protective mechanism are all in place here. Yung mga private casinos for instance maaaring lumalabas iyang pera at magamit for money laundering once they are privately owned, he said. We do what we can, King said. King also thanked Congress for granting them a fresh 25-year franchise. King explained that government de mappingments are dependent on Pagcor. The Department of Education is seeking more money from us. Even many church organizations get donations from Pagcor despite the encounter to Pagcor of some bishops. Pagcor, in President Arroyos own words, is an important part of Philippine nation building. In its endeavor to generate more funds for the governments pressing concerns, Pagcor has ventured beyond casino management.To meet the challenges of the innovative millennium, the gaming corporation is constantly looking for ways to improve its gaming products and maximizing the efficiency of its gaming operations. Philippine free rein Market Sports promise is, to a vast population of Filipinos, a way of life from cockfighting to horseracing and basketball. riotous on number combination games such as lotteries and basketball determination offered by illegal bookies, has become part of millions of Filipinos daily routine. The gaming grocery store in the Philippines is estimated to be over P100 billion a year.Illegal gaming accounts for half of the countrys gaming industry revenues. internet Gaming Market The mesh gaming spheric market is estimated to be US$10 billion in 2002 and is predicted to reach US$14. 5 billion in year 2006. profits Sports Betting and network Casino dominates most of the revenues. Although US now accounts for half of industry revenues, the gaming market is ever-changing and the biggest area of growth is in places like Europe and Asia. Pagcor aims to go global and is keen on gaining a share of the Internet gaming revenue.Internet gaming will allow Pa gcor to reach out to local and external gaming enthusiasts with little investment cost. About Philweb Capitalizing on its Internet engine room experience, Philweb in early 2003 made a deliberate decision to centralise on Internet Gaming. It established partner family with leading software program providers in addition to establishing its own gaming software capability. On the can of this expertise, Philweb was successful in concluding a contract with Pagcor, whereby Philweb became Pagcors boilersuit service provider for Internet Gaming applied science.To date, Philweb has concluded 2 Internet Gaming agreements with Pagcor, as follows Acknowledging the Filipinos yearning for sports and gaming as well as the continuing popularity of local sports dissolute, Pagcor, in partnership with Philweb Corp. , degestural and deployed a new and innovative way to utilize Internet technology in fueling the Filipinos passion for sportsInternet Sports Betting. Pagcor aims to make do head on with illegal bookies and migrate most, if not all, of the illegal gaming revenues into additional source of income for the government.Recognizing Philwebs extensive knowledge in Internet technology, software development expertise and its nationwide trade distribution network, Pagcor signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Philweb on November 28, 2002, engaging the last mentioned as its technology service provider and marketing consultant for Internet Sports Betting. Subsequently, Philweb and Pagcor in any case entered into several supplemental agreements to cover the expansion programs of Pagcor on Internet Sports Betting.Philweb is a PLDT subsidiary. Pagcor license for Internet casino Pagcor has decided to offer casino games outdoor(a) the land-based casinos via Internet Casino Stations. Compared with the land-based counterpart, Internet Casino Stations require less investment because of their low overhead as well as operating and marketing costs. Also, Internet Casino offers ga ming enthusiasts the opportunity to play casino games in the privacy and comfort of their homes at any time of the twenty-four hours and at their own pace.As an additional feature, a prepaid calling card system will be incorporated in Pagcors Internet Casino betting platform to avoid credit card finesse and fast-track its nationwide distribution. Philweb is partnering once more with Pagcor to accelerate the market entering of the latters Internet Casino products in the Philippines. With a management police squad rich with Internet Casino business expertise, Philweb expects to realize with Pagcor the revenue likely of Internet Casino.Currently, Pagcor and Philweb are pursuing for the expansion of their Internet Gaming relationship to now include Internet Casino. Philweb will provide its technology and marketing services to Pagcor. These services shall include the following Recently, Philweb, the Philippine Long surmount Telephone Co. (PLDT) affiliate that oversees the operatio n of an Internet casino business on behalf of the government, expects to report a full-year profit for 2006, the first since it was set up in 2000. Philweb reported net profit of P42 million ($861,848) in the first gild months of 2006.The company, which oversees 45 Internet casino stations, most of them in Manila, said unadulterated betting volume in online casinos had surged from P562 million in 2004 to P10. 8 billion in 2005. It is likely to rise by another 30 percent in 2006, according to Dennis Valdes, the companys president. That forecast looked optimistic on a recent Saturday night in Manila on the primer coat of competition between a bookmakers office, crowded with laborers betting on horses, and an Internet casino station a few feet away where no-one was queuing to play.But the relative quiet outside the online casino belies the vast and quick flow of money into the newest game of chance to hit Manila. On entry into what looks like an Internet cafe, where about 25 deskto p computers are cogitate to a powerful server running gambling software, customers are asked to buy at least P500 worth of credits, and it is not uncommon for players to spend P1,000 in just 15 minutes. We started out as an ISP Internet service provider and it was only lately that the company refocused on Internet gambling, said Valdes.In November 2002, Philweb won a contract to provide consultancy services to the state gambling monopoly, which is trying to curb an illegal market that it estimates to be worth about P50 billion a year. Stock market investors are making a big bet on Philweb, whose share price more than doubled in 2006 and has move up by about a 10th so far this year. Its market capitalization of P3. 9 billion is now almost a suck more than the combined market value of the two bigger and one-time(a) companies that run horse races.