An announced reduction of licence fees for betting platforms in the Philippines is a step “in the right direction”, but more is needed to weed out illegal online operations in the country, said a commentator on a Wednesday panel of gaming executives.

“Pagcor is going in the right direction by reducing the rates, and it’s a welcome change from what we were used to about five years ago,” said Ritchie Aquino, chief executive of Nemo Interactive Group, a service provider for casino and sports games, referring to the country’s regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor).

“But I believe that in order for you to grow, you need to go after the ‘grey market’, you need to have a consolidated effort between all the agencies, including enforcement and financial institutions,” he added during a panel session at the ASEAN Gaming Summit, a gaming-industry trade event in Manila.

Alejandro Tengco, chairman and chief executive of Pagcor, had said on the first day of the event on Tuesday that the agency was set to reduce by April 1 the licence fees for “online and onsite betting platforms”.

The licence fee – as a share of revenue – will be reduced to 35 percent by next month, “about 5 percent lower than what it is today,” the Pagcor boss had explained.

Pepe Costa, country manager for FBM, a maker of casino slot machines and an international specialist in electronic bingo machines, said during Wednesday’s panel discussion that the reduction in licensing fees was a “welcome move”, as were changes to other regulations.

“Pagcor has been doing a lot of changes and we have seen a lot of evolution in the gaming industry in the past two years,” stated Mr Costa. He observed that despite the reduction in fees for betting platforms, the revenue share that Pagcor collects “did not go down, even in the short term”.

Mr Costa noted that the rate of proliferation of illegal online operations in the nation “has gone down, especially since the reduction” of licence fees, in conjunction with the “evolution of regulations”.

Growing competition

Calvin Lim, CEO of casino-games developer Lady Luck Group, noted that the reduction in licence fees would allow the country’s “legal industry to be more competitive”, but said more regulation is needed before a concerted enforcement effort against illegal operation,

He added: “We have to consider that it takes time for regulations to change.”

Evan Spytma, chief executive of Stotsenberg Leisure Park & Hotel Corp, with gaming operations in the Philippines, said the opportunity for land-based operators to offer online play was a boon to their businesses.

“From an integrated resort perspective, we’re basically given a quota from Pagcor based on the [casino] floor area, slot allocation, and then from that slot allocation, 25 percent of that can go online,” explained Mr Spytma.

The executive pointed out that in terms of remote gaming, it means a physical slot machine or gaming table in a casino “that is only played by one player online, and only one at a time”.

Stotsenberg’s CEO said there was an opportunity for land-based operators to compete against online segment-specialist Philippines Inland Gaming Operators (PIGO).

“Our [remote gaming] jackpots can be linked across multiple integrated resorts around the country, so, there’s a huge opportunity here for integrated resorts to actually compete against PIGOs,” stated Mr Spytma.

The executive said that, so far, around 10 integrated resorts in the nation “have committed” to create a jackpot network in terms of their online gaming offering.

“This links not only the integrated resorts and their jackpots, but also the players within the Philippines with the country’s top operators,” he added.