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Philippines – PAGCOR orders closure of 53 bingo halls

By - 12 September 2016

PAGCOR (The Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corp) has told Leisure & Resorts World Corp. that it must shut 53 bingo sites due to their proximity to schools and churches.

Gaming outlets must be at least 200 meters from schools and churches, with PAGCOR ruling that 36 e-bingo sites run by Leisure & Resorts World subsidiary AB Leisure Exponent (ABLE) and 17 sites by its other subsidiary Total Gamezone Extreme Inc (TGXI) must close

LRWC said: “LRWC will send the letter of reconsideration to PAGCOR not later than Tuesday, 13 September 2016. We will still wait for the PAGCOR’s reply to our request for reconsideration before we could set our timetable for the resumption of operations of the affected sites. We could not anticipate the exact date on when will Pagcor answer our request. Should reconsideration be not given, we will transfer the electronic bingo operations at said sites and transfer the same to compliant locations.”

LRWC reported a consolidated net income of P1.03bn last year despite its junket casino business falling by 30 per cent decline. Revenues reached P9.510bn in 2015 versus P6.8bn for the same period last year, marking growth of 40 per cent.

ABLE’s bingo operations were up 27 per cent from 2014 of P193m to P244m.

The company was one of the pioneers in introducing Electronic Bingo games (E-bingo) in the Philippines. The popularity of these machines has swelled and has now become the ABLE’s principal product line. E-bingo is played through an electronic bingo machine, which generates the games and the cards. A total of 8,585 E-bingo machines were installed in 119 affiliated bingo parlours as of December 2015. The dynamic transition to electronic games was due to the technological advances made in the gaming industry. On 21 July 2014, the company acquired Total Gamezone Xtreme, who has 53 branches with a total of 1,974 terminals.

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