Philweb inches closer to resuming operations

Gaming technology firm Philweb Corp. has complied with the requirements of the state-owned Philippine Amusement & Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and is awaiting accreditation to resume its offering of gaming software and other services to electronic gaming sites.

Last August, Philweb received a provisional certificate of accreditation from Pagcor to be an electronic gaming system (EGS) service provider but it has yet to receive the notice to operate, which is required by the accreditation rules.

In a recent interview, Philweb president Dennis Valdes said that since issuing the provisional accreditation, Pagcor had conducted two inspections on the servers used by Philweb to serve a network of internet cafes exclusively dedicated to casino games including baccarat, blackjack, various slot machine games and video poker, most of which operated on a 24/7 basis.

By this time, he said Philweb had complied with Pagcor’s requirements.

“We’re just waiting [for the notice to operate],” he said.

Apart from acquiring new gaming sites, Philweb had invested P100 million in new servers, in compliance with the accreditation requirements.

Once it secures the accreditation, Philweb can start to offer services beyond its co-owned gaming outlets. While some gaming operators tapped other providers since Philweb went out of the market, the gaming firm is confident that these operators will return to its fold. While there’s no exclusivity as far as software providers are concerned, Valdes had said there were other crucial services that operators would require beyond software.

With Pagcor’s accreditation process, Philweb’s contracts going forward will be directly with the gaming operators and not with the gaming regulator itself.

Philweb’s intellectual property license agreement with Pagcor expired on Aug. 10 last year.

The company expects to return to full-year profitability next year as soon as it completes the new accreditation process with Pagcor. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA