Quezon City Rep. Franz Pumaren, a multi-awarded basketball player and coach, called on the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to review the operations of PAGCOR-licensed online sports betting service providers that could give rise to game fixing and compromise the morals and livelihood of athletes.
Pumaren called for an investigation of sports betting operations as the House Committee on Appropriations began discussions on PAGCOR’s proposed 2024 budget.
The Quezon City lawmaker recalled a recent game of the Philippine Basketball Association’s D-League that had to be called off as both teams apparently refused to win. The game was featured in one of the 15 PAGCOR service providers for both onsite and online sports betting.
“I think we will have to take a deeper look at it. As a sportsman, I know what is really happening, it is becoming a tool not only for really friendly sports betting…nagkakaroon po ng konting problema sa ganyan. We will have to review it,” Pumaren told PAGCOR.
He said the gaming regulator should coordinate with the PBA to review at least the said D-League game.
PAGCOR lists 15 companies licensed to operate sports betting — PhilWeb Corp., Orient Capital Ventures, Jade Entertainment and Gaming Technologies, Total Gamezone Xtreme, Glowlight Corporation, Breddas Inc., Infinitech Digital Gaming Corp., Kingwin Ventures, Trojans Well Entertainment Corp., Las Casas Gaming, Sandbox Entertainment, Silver Goose 8 International, GoTech Entertainment, and One Visayas Gaming Corp.
PAGCOR Assistant Vice President Jeremy Luglug told the committee that these licenses only cover local sporting events like basketball, and does not offer betting options for international sporting events.
According to PAGCOR industry statistics, gross gaming revenue—total bets minus payouts—of licensed electronic games including bingo and sports betting total P21.43 billion in the first half of the 2023, up from the P13 billion total in the same period last year that still included around P2 billion from eSabong operations.
DigiPlus Interactive Corp., the publicly-listed owner of Total Gamezone Extreme, reported to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday that it sustained its earnings turnaround in the first half on gains from the digital transformation that include the launch last year of BingoPlus, an online bingo game platform, and this year of ArenaPlus, a digital sportsbook which streams local and international sporting events live.
DigiPlus said net income in the first half surged to P1.08 billion after a net loss of P256.4 million in the same period last year as revenue nearly quadrupled during the period to P8.97 billion.
The listed gaming company said it already has a user base of over 20 million at the end of July. It is unclear what the demographics of these users are.
