The Philippine gambling industry’s revenue is projected to reach a record of more than US$6.03 billion this year, driven by growth in the electronic gaming sector, the head of the country’s gaming regulator said on Tuesday (Dec 10).

The forecast surpasses the 334 billion pesos (S$7.71 billion) target set by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) and represents a significant increase from the previous year’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) of 285 billion pesos.

“Our GGR for the year, I think it’s over 350 billion pesos,” Pagcor chairman Alejandro Tengco told reporters. GGR is a key industry metric that reflects the total amount wagered by players minus their winnings.

A boost in the revenues of Pagcor, which is directly under the office of the Philippine president, bodes well for the South-east Asian country because the bulk of its earnings form part of the national budget.

Manila’s gambling scene, which features a smaller version of Las Vegas’s amusement strip with integrated casino resorts owned by companies like Japan’s Universal Entertainment Corp and Melco Resorts & Entertainment, continues to attract high rollers from China, Japan, South Korea, and other countries.

Tengco also announced that Pagcor is on track to revoke all licences of offshore gambling firms by year-end in compliance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s July directive banning Philippine offshore gambling operators, or POGOs.

The ban follows reports of POGO-related crimes, including human trafficking, torture, kidnapping, and fraudulent activities such as credit card scams and cryptocurrency investment fraud.

The online gambling industry emerged in the Philippines in 2016, rapidly expanding as operators leveraged the country’s liberal gambling laws to target Chinese customers, where gambling is illegal. REUTERS