Domingo confirms: three Philippine IRs to start offering “online table games and slot machines”

Big names including? Solaire, Bloomberry and Okada have taken their business online

The Chairwoman for the Philippine Gaming Regulator (PAGCOR), Andrea Domingo, has reportedly announced in an online forum that three integrated?resorts in the Entertainment City of Metro Manila had “commenced” online play for table games and slots, under the nation’s so-called PIGO (Philippine Inland Gaming Operator) scheme.

According to the report by the Philippine Star newspaper, Andrea Domingo declared that casinos which were green lighted to start offering “online table games and slot machines” were Solaire Resort and Casino, run by Bloomberry Resorts Corp; Resorts World Manila, run by Travellers International Hotel Group Ltd; and Okada Manila, run by a unit of Japan’s Universal Entertainment Corp.

However, Domingo, didn’t clarify if those games were purely digital, if live streaming of live-dealer table games was involved, or whether such play was available only to domestic players or to overseas ones.

Domingo expressed: “It’s all limited because we need to regulate them.

“Not just anyone can play because of non-proliferation and responsible gaming.”

SiGMA News has previously reported that Universal Entertainment’s integrated resort, Okada Manila, operated by wholly-owned Universal Subsidiary Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment Inc (TRLEI), confirmed last month that it had?received a letter from PAGCOR?dated 19 April, approving the firm to enter into online gaming.

In other related news, last month, PAGCOR published 1Q net income of PHP152.6 million (US$3.2 million) for the first three months of 2021. Comparing this income with the PHP777.4 million in the prior-year period, PAGCOR saw a sharp decline of about 80 % year-on-year in revenue.

At the end of last year,?SiGMA News? announced that PAGCOR introduced PIGO licences for online gambling services serving the domestic VIP high rollers located within the Philippines which is the opposite of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), that targets international gamblers, most especially in mainland China.

Currently, a modified enhanced community quarantine has been?re-imposed in Metro Manila, and has been extended to May 14, causing casinos in the Entertainment City to temporarily shut their doors.

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