MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) posted almost P27 billion gross, up by almost 14 percent, or P3.28 billion, from last year’s P23.5 billion gross revenues, its chairman reported Thursday.
In September alone, according to Cristino Naguiat Jr., who is also Pagcor’s chief executive officer, the state-owned gaming firm earned P3.34 billion gross income, higher by P794 million, or 31.18 percent, than last year’s.
This is the fifth consecutive month that Pagcor has surpassed its record for monthly earnings, Naguiat said.
Pagcor’s winning streak began in May when it earned P3.03 billion, followed by better income performances in June (P3.05 billion), July (P3.10 billion) and August (P3.11 billion).
The earnings for the first three quarters of 2011, Naguiat said, totaled P26.78 billion as of end-September.
Naguiat attributed the agency’s robust income performance to such factors as the upbeat operations of its casinos and other regulated gaming activities as well as the prudent management of funds.
“Total winnings from our own gaming operations reached P18.04 billion during the first three quarters of 2011. This exceeded Pagcor’s P16.51 billion winnings for the same period last year by more than P1.52 billion,” Naguiat noted.
Pagcor’s earnings from its other revenue-generating sources, on the other hand, reached P8.73 billion, up by P1.75 billion compared with the P6.98 billion generated in the same period last year. These other income sources include regulation of the operations of licensed casinos, Pagcor e-game stations, poker operations, and commercial bingo grantees.
Naguiat said there was no letup in the implementation of cost-saving measures.
“We were able to save P1.07 billion from Pagcor’s allocated budget for the year from January to September. We are doing our best to ensure that every peso earned by Pagcor will be spent wisely and – as much as possible – with an ROI [return on investment] for it,” he said.
Because of its substantial earnings, Naguiat said the agency was able to increase its contributions to beneficiaries by over P1 billion.
“We remitted P12.33 billion to our various mandated beneficiaries. This was much higher by P1.01 billion compared to the P11.32 billion contributions that Pagcor made from January to September 2010,” Naguiat said.