Philippine online gambling ops add nothing to PAGCOR Q2

The Philippine gambling market saw its revenue fall over 95% between the first and second quarters of 2020, but online gambling operators apparently contributed precisely nothing to this total.

On Friday, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) issued its Q2 gaming industry financial report, which showed total gross gambling revenue of just P2.4b (US$49.9m) in the three months ending June 30, down 95.4% from Q1’s P52.9b.

PAGCOR has dramatically revamped its financial reporting tables, and not in a way that offers more insight into locally licensed gambling operations. For instance, the data on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) appears to have been folded into one of the categories that remain, although which one isn’t exactly clear.

POGOs were ordered to close in mid-March as the Philippines struggled with its surging COVID-19 infections, which also severely limited land-based gambling options. The first POGO sites weren’t cleared to reopen until late-June, so it’s possible there was simply no POGO revenue in Q2 to report.