MANILA, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Philippine high rollers will soon
be allowed to place bets in the comfort of their own homes after
the gaming regulator allowed integrated resort casinos to offer
online gambling to partially recoup billions of dollars of lost
revenues amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Philippines is the first in the region to introduce such
a move, which is part of slew of online gambling projects to
attract Filipinos and, later on, foreigners to place bets and
generate much-needed revenue for the government.
Anti-virus measures have seen casinos close for months and
kept gamblers away.
Online gambling, which will be exclusively for Filipino high
rollers, may begin as early as this month, said Philippine
Amusement and Gaming Corp Chairman Andrea Domingo.
"It would be good to collect revenues and stop illegal
gambling because there's a lot of illegal gambling on social
media," Domingo said in the Asia Gaming Brief virtual forum.
Bloomberry Resorts Corp BLOOM.PS and another casino
operator north of the capital have earlier secured the
regulator's approval to take online bets.
Integrated resort casinos like Okada Manila and City of
Dreams of Hong Kong's Melco Resorts & Entertainment MPEy.F ,
both in the capital Manila, have also applied for license to
offer online gambling.
Filipino VIPs account for around 10% to 15% of casinos'
revenues, said Mark Gilbert, an online gaming consultant.
Gross gaming revenues of the Philippine gaming sector
plunged 60% to 73 billion pesos ($1.5 billion) in January to
September versus the same period in 2019, data from the gaming
regulator showed.
The government has been gradually easing coronavirus curbs.
It allowed to casinos in the capital to reopen at 30% capacity
in September.
The gaming regulator, which is directly under President
Rodrigo Duterte's office, is waiting to get approval to regulate
online cockfighting.
($1 = 48.05 Philippine pesos)