A plan by the Philippine authorities to launch their own casino brand, casinofilipino.com, might happen in the second half this year, said the head of the country’s gaming regulator, as cited in a report carried on Wednesday by the Manila Bulletin news outlet.

“The trend is… a shift from traditional land-based casinos to online gaming,” Alejandro Tengco (pictured in a file photo), chairman and chief executive of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), was cited as saying.

He added that via an Internet platform, Pagcor could have a global presence in gaming operations. “We’re not talking of the Philippine market alone. We’re talking of the world,” he stated.

Mr Tengco had mentioned a plan for a national online gaming brand during a keynote speech at the SiGMA Asia trade show and conference for the iGaming sector in the country’s capital Manila, in July last year.

The proposed name of the online brand matches the name of the publicly-owned Casino Filipino chain of land-based casinos that Pagcor has pledged to sell off to private investors.

As well as controlling the Casino Filipino chain, Pagcor is currently also responsible for licensing private-sector land-based casinos. Pagcor also licenses Philippine Inshore Gaming Operators (PIGOs) serving online domestic customers; Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) serving online overseas clients; and various other forms of online-delivered non-casino gaming within the country.

In an interview extract published by the Manila Bulletin on Monday, Mr Tengco had said electronically-delivered gaming was likely to contribute PHP61.75 billion (US$1.10 billion) to the country’s gaming revenues in 2024.

In the comments carried by the news outlet on Wednesday about the proposed online casino brand, he stated: “We are really excited with the phenomenal growth of eGames in the Philippines and this is where Pagcor will be betting.”

In remarks in November, Mr Tengco said the agency was currently procuring a system via which casinofilipino.com could be operated, “to give Pagcor a significant share of the very lucrative and very profitable online market”.