Pagcor reports us$ 52 million income from gaming operations in November

In a press statement, Pagcor chair and CEO Cristino Naguiat, Jr. announced that the agency’s gaming income for November exceeded by 35.59 % the winnings for the same month in 2010.  Also exceeded was the target of us$ 48.2 million for the period and us$ 49.3 million gaming income in the previous month.

Naguiat attributed the robust result in 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,” he said.

November was also reported as a record-setting month for Pagcor’s slot machine operations nationwide. “We generated us$ 24.9 million 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 percent of our total gaming income - sometimes even surpassing earnings from our gaming tables,” Naguiat said.

He attributed the significant rise in slots earnings to the installation of popular and top-of-the-line slot machines in 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,” he said.

Apart from its own gaming operations, Pagcor also reported substantial revenues from other sources like licensed private casinos, poker, e-games, and commercial bingo. Earnings from these operations reached us$ 20.2 million in November, up by us$ 2.3 million against the same period last year.
Given these results, Pagcor contributed a total of us$ 36.2 million to nation-building projects for the month.  This was half a billion pesos bigger than the amount contributed in the same month last year. For November, Pagcor will remit us$ 24.9 million to the National Treasury, 36 percent more than the remittance for the same month last year. The agency’s contributions to the Philippine Sports Commission also increased from us$ 921,670 to us$ 1.2 million.
The biggest increase in contribution was for direct assistance to various socio-civic projects where Pagcor remitted us$ 3.59 million more (from us$ 520,718 to us$ 4.1 million). Remittance to the President’s Social Fund likewise grew by us$ 1 million.

Apart from its mandatory contributions to nation-building, Pagcor said it had set aside substantial funding for its various corporate social responsibility programs. Among these were the us$ 22,63 million 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, and the us$ 2,26 million funding for the P-Noy Bayanihan project which aims to manufacture school furniture from confiscated logs in partnership with Technical Education and Development Authority  and the  Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Under its “Pamaskong Handog ng Pagcor 2011: 25 Days of Christmas, 25 Years of Pagcor,” the agency has launched a nationwide gift-giving project that aims to help more than 7,000 poor people under the care of 36 charitable institutions. “Instead of Pagcor spending lavishly for its silver anniversary celebration, we opted to allocate us$ 565,998 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 this gift-giving program was the Philippine Army, which got a us$ 102,106 for the procurement of modern hospital equipment for three of its hospitals; the Philippine National Police General Hospital which was given a us$ 90,559 to purchase hospital equipment; the Project Brave Kids Foundation and the Philippine Foundation for Breast Care, which received us$ 34,000 and us$ 24,903, respectively, for the benefit of their indigent cancer patients.