In a response to the pandemic’s economic impact on the casino gambling industry three of the four integrated resort (IR) casinos in the Philippines capital of Manila have received online gaming licenses. These new licences are being granted to serve the domestic high roller gamblers.
The PIGO licenses will only allow the three casinos to welcome qualified domestic high rollers located inside the Philippines. The resorts receiving the online gambling go ahead are Melco Resorts, Universal Entertainment and Bloomberry Resorts. The parent firm of Resorts World, Genting was left out of the decision. Most of the offshore gambling operators target Chinese and other countries close by.
Andrea Domingo chair person of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) said during an interview this week that the newly created Philippine Inland Gaming Operator (PIGO) has been authorized to issue the licences.
Domingo explained that only known high rollers already enrolled in a casino’s land-based player database will be welcomed to gamble online. They can only play if they’re considered or classified as VIP players and they are already in their player-tracking system,”
Gross gaming revenue stemming from the PIGO business will be taxed at an effective rate of 30 percent. Licensees will send 25 percent of their online win to PAGCOR, and the remaining five percent to the Philippines Bureau of Internal Revenue. “It will be good to collect revenues and stop illegal gambling because there’s a lot of illegal gambling,” Domingo explained. It was suggested by the PAGCOR chair that domestic online gaming could be expanded in the future for non-high rollers.
“Due to the pandemic, people are really going online. Everybody wants to shop online, consult their doctors online, get their test results online,” The chief added that there may be a way to qualify more ordinary citizens in the future to play online in a safe manner.