Effective since 1 January, the lower rate is the second reduction in the space of less than 12 months. Pagcor last April cut its gaming rate to 35% of GGR in the hopes of drawing more legal operators to the Philippines.
Announcing the reduction, Pagcor chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco said the rate would also be lowered for integrated resorts. This will be set at 25% of GGR to compensate for overhead expenses incurred by land-based operators.
The fee rate collected by the regulator is based on a fixed percentage of the licensees’ gross gaming revenues (GGR). Prior to the rate reductions that were initiated in 2023, Pagcor was collecting fees of more than 50%.
Tengco, who has overseen the cuts in rates since taking the helm at Pagcor, said high rates deter illegal operators from seeking licences in the Philippines. He added the aim of Pagcor is to draw former grey market players into the legal market.
“By lowering our share rates, Pagcor is creating a more favourable regulatory environment by encouraging unregistered online gaming operators to transition to the legal market,” he said.
Pagcor chief expects more licensees in 2025
Going into further detail, Tengco said the gradual reduction in rates has resulted in more licensees. The overall number of accredited gaming service providers increased threefold from 49 in 2023 to 174 in 2024.
Since it started issuing licences, Pagcor has issued 1,188 licences across on-site and online gaming offerings. This is 13.6% more than the 1,046 issued by 2023.
As a result, Tengco said the country’s licensed online gambling sector has been able to reach key milestones ahead of time. One example is hitting a PHP100 billion (£1.39 billion/€1.65 billion/$1.71 billion) annual GGR for 2024 by September of that year.
“The gradual reduction of rates has significantly contributed to the growth of the egames sector, which has become a key driver of the local gaming industry,” Tengco said.
“We expect this trend to continue. We are optimistic that the best is yet to come for the country’s egames sector.”
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/finance/pagcor-reduction-egames-rates/
