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Posted: Friday | December 16, 2011 | 11:40 AM
 The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) set another record performance this year after it posted a staggering P2.32 billion winnings from its own gaming operations for the month of November alone, by far the highest gaming income ever recorded in the state-owned gaming firm’s 25-year history.
PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Cristino Naguiat, Jr. announced that the agency’s gaming income for November exceeded by P609 million or 35.59% the winnings it earned for the same month in 2010.
The state-run gaming firm also exceeded its November 2011 winnnings target of P2.13 billion by P188 million or almost 9%. It is also higher by P140 million compared to the P2.18 billion gaming income for October 2011.
Naguiat attributed PAGCOR’s remarkable winnings for November to a more aggressive campaign to improve Casino Filipino’s gaming operations and revitalize its marketing programs. “We are beginning to complement the bullish performance of private licensed casinos. Competition is good for us. It only makes us more determined to keep on implementing innovative ways on how to survive despite the fierce competition we are facing both on the local and international front,” Naguiat noted.
November was also a record-setting month for PAGCOR’s slot machine operations nationwide. “We generated P1.1 billion from our slots operations. This is by far the highest winnings we have earned from our slot machines. During the past 11 months of the year, our slots income accounted for more than 50% of our total gaming income – sometimes even surpassing earnings from our gaming tables,” Naguiat said.
He added that the significant rise in slots earnings was mainly due to the revved up offerings of popular and top-of-the-line slot machines that have been installed in the different Casino Filipino branches and arcades nationwide. “We are getting better in our gaming mix. We hope to continue this momentum, with the hope of eventually tapping more foreign tourists to visit our casinos and arcades.”
Apart from its own gaming operations, PAGCOR also earned substantial revenues from other sources like licensed private casinos, poker, e-games, and commercial bingo. “Last November, our earnings from these operations reached P894 million, up by P103 million against the same period last year.”
The impressive performance of PAGCOR in its own gaming operations resulted in higher contributions to nation-building for November. “During the month, PAGCOR contributed a total of P1.6 billion to nation-building. This was half a billion pesos better than the amount we gave for various national development programs in November 2010,” Naguiat pointed out.
For November 2011, PAGCOR will remit P1.10 billion to the National Treasury – a 36% or P290 million increase compared to the P814 million remittance for the same month in 2010. The agency’s contributions to the Philippine Sports Commission also improved by P14 million (from P40.71 million to P55.19 million). Meantime the biggest increase in contribution was for direct assistance to various socio-civic projects where PAGCOR remitted P159 million more (from P23 million to P182 million). Remittance to the President’s Social Fund likewise grew by P47 million (from P53 million to P100 million).
Apart from its mandatory contributions to nation-building, PAGCOR is able to set aside substantial funding for its various high-impact Corporate Social Responsibility programs. Among these are the P1 billion funding for the construction of 1,000 classrooms nationwide under the “Matuwid na Daan sa Silid Aralan” project in partnership with the Department of Education (DepED), and the P100 million funding for the P-Noy Bayanihan project which aims to manufacture thousands of school furnitures out of confiscated logs in partnership with TESDA and DENR.
Now on its 25th year, the agency is currently holding a more meaningful event dubbed as “Pamaskong Handog ng PAGCOR 2011: 25 Days of Christmas, 25 Years of PAGCOR”. The nationwide gift-giving project aims to touch the lives of more than 7,000 less privileged Filipinos under the care of 36 charitable institutions.
“Instead of PAGCOR spending lavishly for its silver anniversary celebration, we opted to allocate P25 million for our Pamaskong Handog project as our way of paying forward the blessings that PAGCOR has received all these years,” Naguiat said.
Among the biggest recipients of the ongoing Pamaskong Handog ng PAGCOR 2011 include the Philippine Army which got a P4.515 million financial aid for the procurement of modern hospital equipment for three of its hospitals; the Philippine National Police General Hospital which was given a P4 million financial aid also to purchase important hospital equipment; the Project Brave Kids Foundation and the Philippine Foundation for Breast Care, Inc. which received P1.5 million and P1.1 million, respectively, for the benefit of their indigent cancer patients.
“PAGCOR is here to give help where it is most needed. We will continue to do our best to improve our revenue-generation efforts, and constantly look for ways on how we can best work with our government and other concerned agencies in helping move this country forward,” Naguiat said.
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