The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation has announced plans to launch an online casino – Casino Filipino – by the first quarter of next year.
PAGCOR Chairman and CEO, Alejandro H Tengco, noted that the online casino will help increase revenue and enhance customer engagement amongst various other opportunities.
Casino Filipino will also integrate virtual reality-based technology to reproduce the land-based casino experience in the online space.
Tengco said: “It will allow players to interact with the digital counterparts of traditional casino games. It will also transcend physical boundaries and will enable users from around the world to interact and participate in virtual environments.
“It can reach a global audience and can establish a presence in virtual communities of avid gamers. It will likewise offer an opportunity to tap into new markets and diversify its customer base.”
Tengco added that Casino Filipino will help sustain growth as part of several PAGCOR gaming experience advancements, including the introduction of 3,500 electronic gaming machines and information technology programs and systems to update their casino management system.
The CEO said: “This will play a pivotal role in improving PAGCOR’s casinos in terms of operational efficiency, enhancing customer experience, facilitating real-time reporting and analytics, ensuring security and fraud prevention, optimising financial management and streamlining compliance requirements.”
Tengco also announced PAGCOR’s financial figures for the first half of 2023, declaring a gaming operations income of P34.125bn (£484.6m), with contributions to nation-building growing by 48.50 per cent year-over-year to P22.62bn.
He also believes the company can match or surpass pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.
“For the second half of this year, our total income from gaming operations is projected to be P37bn, which brings to a total of P71bn the projected income from gaming operations by the end of 2023. This is 94 per cent compared to the 2019 record-breaking year of PAGCOR. If realised, it will be 30 per cent higher than last year’s income of P55bn.”
