PAGCOR Chairman Alejandro Tengco on Monday reiterated his stance that the country’s gaming regulator was facing a considerable decline in gaming revenues and income in 2026, driven by the delinking of licensed online gaming platforms from e-wallets and the impact of the Middle East conflict on the local economy.
However, he also noted a recent uptick at the country’s integrated resorts, with higher visitation and activity through July and August.
Tengco’s comments were made during an appearance at the House of Appropriations Committee on Monday in which he detailed factors impacting PAGCOR and its mandated contributions to nation-building.
The agency said it expects total income to fall by around 18% year-on-year to Php86.9 billion (US$1.41 billion) – mainly attributable to an order from the central bank last year for the delinking of online gaming platforms.
“After that was implemented, we experienced a downtrend of around 40% in gaming activities,” Tengco explained. “Because of the delinking, you have to go through another process, so that contributed to a 40% decline.”
The chairman also observed that the conflict in the Middle East had proven particularly troublesome for the lower socio-economic mass market segments of society, which comprise a significant portion of online gaming platform users.
He did, however, note some positive trends in both online and land-based recently.
For the month of July, we saw an increase in [online[ gaming activity of about 10% and in August, still at that same level,” he said, according to GMA News.
“Hopefully, as economic conditions improve, we will have better revenue coming from online gaming.”
In regard to the country’s integrated resorts, Tengco added, “A good sign is there is now an uptick in the number of tourists who are patronizing these integrated resorts, so we have seen a slight upward trend towards the end of July and early August.
“If the trend continues and considering that the peak season for gaming activities is already coming up, hopefully we’re able to recover the weak revenue in the first half towards the latter part of this year.”
Whichever way the winds prevail, PAGCOR will allocate around Php300 million each month to pay down a whopping Php37 billion debt owed to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Tengco explained.
This follows a recent Supreme Court ruling that determined the agency’s mandated contribution should comprise 5% of gross income as opposed to the 5% of gaming revenue previously applied. The ruling was backdated to 1991, resulting in the Php37 billion debt, although the court has given PAGCOR 10 years to make good.
PAGCOR recently reported an 85.3% year-on-year decline in net income to Php1.58 billion (US$25.7 million) in 1H26 on a 26.6% fall in total revenues to Php43.3 billion (US$705 million).
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