The Philippine casino sector continued growth in the fourth quarter of 2022 to generate almost PHP56.01 billion (US$1.02 billion) in gross gaming revenue (GGR) as of December 31. This level exceeds the third quarter’s figures by 13.5 % and represents a 96.2 percent higher revenue value than the one achieved over the same period last year. Still, the figure referring to the casino industry’s revenue does not include bingo, electronic games, and “e-sabong” (online presented cock-fighting) betting operations.

 GGR amounted to US$3.34 billion:

The latest data reported by GGRAsia included the gross gaming revenue generated by the casino industry for the full year 2022. According to these, the overall handle of the sector in the Philippines amounted to around PHP184.00 billion (US$3.34 billion), which is as much as 90.6 percent more than the level of PHP96.55 billion (US$1.75 billion) reached in 2021. Our source also reports that these data were released on Monday by the national gaming authority, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), but were not commented on by the regulator.

GGR increased by over 96 percent in Q4 2022:

In the production of the overall casino industry’s handle in the fourth quarter, the private-owned casino facilities in Manila’s Entertainment City participated with around 78.7 percent share, or PHP44.06 billion. The activity in these facilities accounted for a 15.2 % growth over the third quarter of 2022.

Also, the group of commercial casinos in the Clark Freeport Zone, as well as those located on the country’s main island, Luzon, contributed to the overall growth with almost PHP6.78 billion of gross gaming revenue generated in the fourth quarter. Again, the figure represents an 11.3 percent increase when compared to the preceding quarter.

Overall casino industry growth:

The aggregated revenue of Pagcor-operated casinos from October 1 to December 31 reached a value of around PHP4.80 billion recording a  4.3 percent growth over the preceding three-month period. Likewise, the non-VIP table games generated PHP1.79 billion in gross gaming revenues to raise their value by 1.1 percent in comparison to the third quarter. However, the GGR of mass-market slot machines run by Pagcor fell by 1.2 percent to around PHP2.34 billion in the fourth quarter.

The leading role of Manila’s Entertainment City:

As for the full year 2022,  the casino resorts at Entertainment City generated around PHP146.21 billion (US$2.66 billion) in gross gaming revenue representing a 79.5 percent stake of the entire GGR generated by the casino industry in the Philippines last year. As for Pagcor-operated facilities, their aggregated GGR reached PHP15.79 billion in 2022, with more than 50 percent, or nearly PHP8.47 billion, produced by the mass-market slot machines.

Rapidly growing tendency:

After the capacity restrictions had been relaxed in the last quarter of 2021, the casino sector in the Philippines, including the major Entertainment City resorts, recorded continuous growth in 2022 to reach almost 91 percent higher level than the previous year. However, the gross gaming revenue generated by the industry in the fourth quarter of 2022 represented a 96.2 percent industry increase year-on-year and accounted for more than 30 percent of the entire GGR generated in 2022 to testify to the rapidly growing tendency of the casino sector in the Philippines.