Philippine casinos flying high in 2017 thanks to junkets, slots

Philippine-licensed casino operators got big boosts from junket operators and slot machines in the first half of 2017.

This week, the state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) reported its official financial breakdown of the country’s gaming industry for the second quarter of 2017. For whatever reason, it’s the first such report that PAGCOR has released since reporting the Q3 2016 figures last November.

During that intermission, PAGCOR has continued to release its own revenue figures but the new data gives the first insights into the role that junket operators play at both PAGCOR’s own Casino Filipino operations as well as PAGCOR-licensed privately-run casinos.

Junket-derived revenue at PAGCOR-operated casinos hit P1.91b (US $37.1m) in Q2, nearly one-third higher than in Q2 2016, although the sum was down from P2.16b in Q1 2017. In the first half of 2017, PAGCOR casinos’ junket-derived revenue hit P4.07b, putting it on track to beat the P6.2b PAGCOR earned via this channel in all of 2016.