The Philippine Amusement And Gaming Corporation has released its financial results for the first six months of 2016 showing a 2.5% increase year-on-year in net income to $51.9 million.

The state-owned firm operates over 30 casinos in the Philippines including the Casino Filipino Tagaytay and stated that its gross earnings for the six-month period reached $570.9 million, which represented a 29.7% rise year-on-year, while net income from its gaming operations swelled by 19.6% to $553.1 million and was 29.4% ahead of its $427.7 million target.

The Philippine Amusement And Gaming Corporation also serves as the regulator for the East Asian nation’s entire casino industry and explained that it had net second-quarter earnings of $318.2 million from its gaming operations, which represented a 35.4% increase quarter-on-quarter, with total revenues for the three months to the end of June growing by 33.1% from the previous quarter’s $245 million to stand at $326.1 million.

However, expenses also rose with total six-month operating costs swelling by 3.7% year-on-year to $149.2 million while it contributed $369.6 million to the state including $262.1 million direct to the Bureau Of The Treasury. By law, the Philippine Amusement And Gaming Corporation is required to hand over half of its annual gross earnings to the government but it was recently found to have fallen short between 2011 and 2015 to the tune of just over $327 million.

Since 2010, the Philippine Amusement And Gaming Corporation has more than quintupled to in excess of 12,000 the number of terminals offering slots, table and card games it operates in its eGames outlets and this was seen as a major player in the firm reporting net income for the whole of last year of just beyond $80.1 million, which represented a 16.2% boost year-on-year.