Operator News
Philippines – Manila casinos to reopen ‘at the very latest in July’
By Phil - 9 June 2020
PAGCOR’s Chair and CEO Andrea Domingo hopes Manila’s casinos can reopen this month, or ‘at the very latest in July,’ following falling tax revenues and job losses in the casino sector.
Land-based casinos have been closed for almost three months with Okada Manila announcing 1,000 layoffs last month due to the lack of revenue.
Speaking at the ICE Asia Digital and SiGMA Asia Focus online conference, she said PAGCOR had grown its annual income from US$902m in 2015 to over US$1.6bn in 2019.
“This is how much PAGCOR contributes to the national economy and we would have been doing very well this year, but then COVID came and somehow we have to take three steps back,” she said. “But we’re going to get on with it in June or at the very latest in July. The priority is that we need to stay healthy and stay safe during COVID-19. The second most important thing is that we have to be able to maintain the employment of the 132,000 direct hires of the gaming industry. And third we have to maximize revenue collection because our government, like all governments, needs the money not only to fight COVID but to buy a vaccine, to do massive testing, support hospitals and also to jumpstart the economy after the COVID crisis is over.”
