Philippines Gaming and Amusement Corporation (PAGCOR) chief Andrea Domingo is getting ready to review a new round of Philippines Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) license to home grown gambling operators.
The announcement came during a fiery keynote address and news conference at the ASEAN Gaming Summit in Manila this week.
During her address, Domingo announced that her office will be entertaining a new round of applications for POGO licenses. This comes just months after PAGCOR approved the first round of 35 POGO licenses.
According to Domingo, her office has at least 78 applicants lined up and ready to shell out the $40,000-$50,000 in processing fees and $150,000-$200,000 in fees once the application is accepted. Domingo did caution that not all 78 applicants would necessarily receive licenses.
Domingo did, however, make it very clear that PAGCOR’s interest in licensing new gambling sites was based on an interest in generating revenue for the Philippine Government. Her department has a 2017 revenue goal of $60 million ($120 million USD) and is clearly not interested in annoying Philippine strongman Rodrigo Duterte by coming up short.
In her address she noted:
he POGOs are meant to safeguard the welfare of the Filipinos at the same time meet the agency’s revenue targets to help fund the government’s nation-building programs.
Domingo also addressed the challenges of attracting tourists to the Philippines while the Duterte government continues to engage its bloody war against drug use and other social ills. That war has claimed more than 6,000 lives in just the last year alone.
Not surprisingly, that part of the speech did not go over well with her fellow government officials. Among the aggrieved were Philippines Vice President Leni Robrerdo who called for an immediate apology.