Pagcor expects 2026 income down 18pct to US$1.4bln, sees late-year recovery

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), the nation’s gaming regulator, expects its total income to decline by about 18 percent year-on-year in 2026, to nearly PHP86.95 billion (US$1.41 billion), amid weaker gaming activity in the country. The forecast compares with PHP106.03 billion in income recorded by the state-run gaming regulator and operator in 2025, according to information presented by Pagcor during a Monday budget hearing at the Philippines’ House of Representatives. The agency’s net income should decline to PHP1.66 billion in full-year 2026, from PHP17.47 billion last year, per Pagcor’s forecast. Pagcor chairman and chief executive, Alejandro Tengco (pictured in a file photo), said the weaker performance was linked in part to the delinking of electronic wallets from online gambling platforms. “We had experienced a downtrend of about 40 percent in gaming activity because it’s not as easy as before when platforms were linked,” Mr Tengco stated during the hearing, according to local media reports. The Pagcor chief also cited the impact of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East on consumer spending. He said players in the online gaming segment were predominantly from middle-income and working-class groups, which had been particularly affected by the economic consequences of the conflict. Pagcor had reported a 26.6-percent year-on-year decline in total revenue for the first half of 2026, to PHP43.32 billion, from PHP59.05 billion a year earlier. Revenue from gaming operations declined by 27.1 percent year-on-year, to PHP38.92 billion. The electronic gaming segment – encompassing e-bingo, e-games and bingo grantees – generated PHP18.60 billion in revenue, down 41.9 percent from the prior-year period. Pagcor’s first-half net income fell by 85.3 percent year-on-year, to PHP1.58 billion. The regulator previously said the sharper decline in net income reflected higher mandatory remittances to the Philippine Sports Commission following a Supreme Court ruling. Despite the weaker first-half performance, Mr Tengco said Pagcor was seeing signs of improvement in gaming activity and remained hopeful that some of the earlier weakness could be recovered during the remainder of 2026. “Considering that the peak season for gaming activity is coming up… hopefully we’re able to recover the weak revenue in the first-half towards the latter part of this year,” he stated. Mr Tengco added that integrated resort operators had reported an increase in tourist volumes, saying the agency had observed a “slight upward trend towards the end of July and early August”. The Philippine gaming sector – including non-casino operations – produced gross gaming revenue (GGR) of PHP88.14 billion in the second quarter of 2026, 20.3-percent lower than in the prior-year period. GGR was up 0.6 percent sequentially, according to official data. In June, Mr Tengco suggested the country’s GGR could decline by as much as 19 percent in 2026, citing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and their effect on consumer spending.