PhilWeb gets Pagcor clearance to operate

MANILA, Philippines — PhilWeb Corp., the listed gaming company now owned by businessman Gregorio “Greggy” Araneta III, has received from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) the go-signal to start offering e-games.

“PhilWeb received today a letter from Pagcor allowing it to offer its services as an electronic gaming system service provider to the first 16 Pagcor-licensed gaming sites for electronic games, subject to inspection and testing by Pagcor,” the company said.

This means PhilWeb is back in the game after its license expired last year and was not renewed by Pagcor.

PhilWeb’s e-games operators — around 120 operators — have been waiting for the said notice to be able to resume their respective e-games businesses.

While waiting for Pagcor’s green light, PhilWeb made new investments, bought new servers with an investment of over P100 million for these servers.

It has also acquired six new sites using two million shares of the company’s 350 million treasury shares.

As an accredited EGS service provider, PhilWeb can start offering again its software and other services to the operators of Pagcor-licensed gaming sites for electronic games.

During a recent annual stockholders meeting, PhilWeb president Dennis Valdes said that soon after the company is able to operate, it may be able to post full year profit by the end of 2018.

PhilWeb remitted P2.1 billion to Pagcor in 2015, the last full year that it operated before its contract with the regulator expired in 2016.

The new Pagcor administration led by chairman and CEO Andrea Domingo has introduced a new accreditation process for service providers such as PhilWeb, different from the licensing system in the past, which could limit choices of operators of electronic games.

With technology provided by PhilWeb, patrons can choose from more than 300 casino games, including baccarat, blackjack, various slot machine games, video poker and sports betting.

PhilWeb was previously owned by tycoon Roberto V. Ongpin until he sold his stake to Araneta.