Could the Philippines’ PAGCOR Really Sell Off Its 40+ Landbased Casinos?

The decision to privatize the Philippines landbased casinos is nothing new. It was one of the goals set out by the PAGCOR Chairman and CEO, Alejandro Tengco, and that PAGCOR, the state-run regulator AND operator, will become a regulator only. This goal was to complete the privatization by the end of the current President’s term – Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos’ presidency, which ends in 2028.

Now, a decision has to be made in the next few weeks as to whether they can get this started, and the Chairman and CEO of PAGCOR wants to have it done officially, by an Executive Order. This order could be issued as soon as September of this year, giving PAGCOR more than enough time to chisel out the details and figure out how it will settle into its new role as regulator only, and not an operator. But the big question here is how exactly that privatization will look like? Someone will have to assume responsibilities for running these landbased casinos.

This is, after all, a $5 billion landbased gaming industry we are talking about. If the regulators decide to put those landbased casinos under the hammer – surely the likes of MGM Resorts, Wynn, Caesars, Hard Rock, PENN, and Genting will wrestle to take hold of the 40+ major venues in Manila, Angeles City, and the various remote resort destinations.

An Executive Order To Kick Things Off

Tengco, the Chairman and CEO of PAGCOR, expects the authorities to come to a conclusion by August as to whether or not this decoupling can go ahead. If it does, then an Executive Order can be issued as early as September, and the process can start off. The case at hand involves over 40 landbased casinos spread out across the Philippines. These, right now, are run and licensed by the state-run PAGCOR (The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation).

Now it is important to note, that while PAGCOR owns most of the casinos in the country through its brand Casino Filipino, it is by no means a gambling monopoly. There are several other big players in the Philippines, including  Solaire Resort (Bloomberry Resorts Corporation), City of Dreams Manila (Melco Resorts), and Newport World Resorts (Alliance).

Global Trend of Gambling Sector Privatization

But PAGCOR holds a large portion of the market. This is not an uncommon state of affairs, in fact, you can just look at Europe, where a lot of markets were either dominated by, or completely monopolized by, the state government. European countries, now, mostly have open markets, but that was not always the case. In fact, many legal landbased casino markets were dominated by state run lotteries, gambling agencies, or even the same ministries that regulated the market.

That is no longer the case nowadays. The last EU countries to still hold onto state-run gambling sectors are Finland’s Veikkaus monopoly, Austrian Casinos AG, the Netherlands (landbased only), and Norway. While Finland’s iGaming market will open in 2027, rendering an end to the monopoly, the landbased sector will remain under the control of Veikkaus. Austria is also set to launch a private iGaming market, but keep its landbased monopoly.

The Philippines, on the other hand, has an open online casino gaming market, and PAGCOR is interested in launching a state-run online casino brand (casinofilipino.com). What is quite peculiar is that if this Executive Order is filed, then PAGCOR would not only release its 40+ brick-and-mortar venues. It would also pass on its not-yet-launched Casino Filipino online brand.

Gambling Regulation in the Philippines

The Philippines is one of the most lenient countries for gambling in Asia. It has a booming online casino market, an open brick-and-mortar gambling sector, and it is not far off the biggest casino markets in Asia, namely, Macau and Singapore.

Practically all classic casino games are legal, including slots, blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps and poker. Horse race betting is legal, as is cockfighting (cruel as it is). The only forms of gambling that are illegal in the Philippines are regional specialties Masiao, Last Two, and Jueteng – a form of local lottery that has a history of scandal and crime syndicates – a bit similar to the Brazilian Jogo do Bicho.

PAGCOR acts as the regulator and operator, issuing licenses to online and landbased casinos, and overseeing them at the same time. It also, therefore, regulates its own operations, creating a slight conflict of interest. Especially as PAGCOR is responsible for collecting the licensing fees and tax duties from operators.

Privatizing the sector would relieve the state-operated agency from its operational duties, so it can focus on regulating the market and collecting any licensing/tax costs. But another reason why PAGCOR may be looking to decouple ahead of schedule is that the Philippines gambling industry revenue is slated to drop this year, as a result of geopolitical tensions across the Middle East.

Philippines Landbased Gaming Market

It too has been affected by the US-Iran war, as well as players increasingly heading to digital platforms instead of landbased casinos. The GGR of the entire Philippine gaming industry (online and landbased) for Q1 2026 dropped around 15.87% year on year. In the Q1 PAGCOR announcement, there was a pretty surprising admission too. The electronic gsaming sector made up 45.55% of the revenue, and licensed casinos made around 50.83%. Oh, and the PAGCOR operated landbased casinos made up only 3.62% of the entire GGR in that quarter.

The landbased sector, just in that quarter, took just over half of the entire industry, which is a confident figure that the Philippine landbased casino industry is still going strong, even in a world where more players shift to online platforms. But the PAGCOR casinos, the very ones they are looking to privatize, only make up 3.62% of the entire market. Under the Casino Filipino brand, PAGCOR runs 9 casino venues and 34 satellite casinos or slots clubs. Private operators own 15 casinos, but these are not smaller or tucked away venues, but the largest Philippines casino resorts – in locations like Manila, the island of Cebu, Clark Freeport Zone and Angeles City.

Philippines Casino Industry in Asia

To understand the Philippines casino industry, you have to be familiar with the geographical layout. The biggest hub is in the capital, Metro Manila, where you have the likes of Okada Manila, Solaire Resort and City of Dreams. About 2 hours North by car, you have Angeles and Clark Freeport Zone, which has another hub of newer casino resorts, and this is where the Clark International Airport is located. So these two areas command a lot of international traffic.

The next big hotspot is the island of Cebu, which has around 10 venues, the biggest of which are NUSTAR Resort, Casino Filipino (Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino), and The Palace Casino. This island is a bit further out, but it also has an international airport (Mactan-Cebu International Airport), bringing in the traffic.

Across Asia, Macau Casinos are still the most dominant. Comparing the GGR across 2024-25 (disclosed data, that is), it looks something like this:

• Macau: $29.8 billion, around 30 landbased casinos
• Singapore: $6 – $6.5 billion, just 2 casino resorts
• Philippines: $4.5 – $5 billion, around 70+ casinos (including smaller venues)
• South Korea: $2.5 – $3 billion, around 30 casinos
• Vietnam: $1 – $1.5 billion, around 35+ Vietnamese casinos

The Macau casino industry is easily the most dominant, and its biggest resorts were created in the 2000s, with the exception of Galaxy Macau (2011) and Wynn Palace (2016). Both of Singapore’s casinos were built in 2010, and the small island country deliberately stuck to just 2 casino licenses. The Philippines built its first major casino resort, Newport World Resorts, back in 2009. And it steadily expanded with Solaire (2013), City of Dreams Manila (2015), Okada Manila (2016) and NUSTAR Cebu (2022).

But the Philippines has a massive advantage over the other two. Macau is just a small administrative region of China, on the Macau Peninsula. Singapore is an island nation, and while it has 60 smaller satellite islands and islets, it is not very big. Macau is around 33 square kilometers in size, and Singapore is 744 square km. The Philippines is an entire country, with around 300,000 square meters of total land across its archipelago. In terms of growth, it has so much more potential than the other two.

An Excellent Opportunity Going Forward

The biggest landbased casino operators in the Philippines are:

• Bloomberry Resorts Corporation (Solaire and Solaire Resort North)
• Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment (Okada Manila)
• Travellers International (Newport World Resorts and soon Westside City Resort)
• Melco Resorts and Entertainment (City of Dreams)

They will be eyeing the news for any breakthroughs with great excitement, and perhaps due fear too. For while PAGCOR’s casinos represent a very small portion of the market, what happens next could change that drastically. It doesn’t have massive infrastructure, and these venues are relatively small compared to the bigger casino resorts. But it would only take the likes of Genting Group, Caesars, MGM or Wynn to take an interest to suddenly turn the market on its head.

If they can get the PAGCOR venues on the cheap, and perhaps use them as a basis to enter the young Philippine gambling market, this is a massive opportunity for any gambling conglomerate or landbased casino operator.