PAGCOR orders closure of 53 LRWC eGaming parlors

Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has ordered the closure of 53 electronic gaming and electronic bingo sites of gaming company Leisure & Resorts World Corp. (LWRC). The gaming firm currently operates 137 bingo outlets across the Philippines.

LRWC informed the Philippine Stock Exchange in a disclosure on Friday that its wholly-owned subsidiaries AB Leisure Exponent Inc. (ABLE) and Total Gamezone Xtreme Inc. (TGXI) received separate notices from PAGCOR to cease and desist their respective operations for not complying with the distance restriction guidelines defined in Section 2 of Regulation 3 of the Gaming Site Regulatory Manual.

Under Section 2, gaming sites must be 200 meters away from schools and churches.

With the closure of its 53 e-gaming cafes, LRWC said that revenues and net income foregone up to the end of 2016 for the affected sites are estimated to be P477 million (US$ 10.1 million) and P56.2 million (US$ 1.19 million), respectively, based on historical first seven months of 2016.