Private operators will play an increasingly important role in the gaming market in the Philippines, it has been suggested.

Rising Hong-Kong-listing operator Entertainment Gaming Asia recently struck a deal to increase its revenue share in the San Pedro VIP Club in Manila – a property controlled by the state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation. A third party owned the premises.

Under its previous agreement with PAGCOR, the company took home a 17 per cent share of net win after tax from the San Pedro club. Following recent negotiations, this has now been upped to 35 per cent until 2016, with Entertainment Gaming taking over the role of the third company and working directly with PAGCOR.

Clarence Chung, CEO of Entertainment Gaming Asia, said the company may look to renegotiate its stakes in other gaming facilities in the Philippines.

“Our investment in the San Pedro property is part of our overall efforts to strategically manage our machine placements to focus on growing win per day at our most promising venues and improve our growth potential in this market,” he told InterGaming. “These efforts also include implementing, with the support of our venue owner partners, targeted marketing programmes and the redeployment, when possible, of our gaming assets from lower to higher performing venues in the market.”

There has been growing speculation in recent years that the government may seek to reduce its direct participation in the gaming market and privatise its assets. PAGCOR has the sole right to issue casino licences and has already granted several private companies permits to open major gaming properties, such as Entertainment City in Manila.
Chung believes this co-operation will continue.

“There has long been private involvement in the gaming industry in the Philippines as witnessed by the VIP slot clubs and certain casino properties,” he said. “We believe this trend will continue as seen with the issuance of casino licences for the development of casino resort complexes in PAGCOR's Entertainment City.”