5,000 jobs at risk

PhilWeb's mobile lottery proposal rebuffed by PAGCOR

The state gambling regulator said on Thursday it rejected a proposal by PhilWeb Corp. to spin off its gaming cafe operations into a text lottery meant to save thousands of jobs.
2016-09-02
Reading time 58 seg
The state gambling regulator said on Thursday it rejected a proposal by PhilWeb Corp. to spin off its gaming cafe operations into a text lottery meant to save thousands of jobs.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) board decided that the mobile lottery should be handled by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), not by the gaming regulator, PAGCOR Chairman Andrea Domingo said.

PhilWeb said Thursday it told 216 employees to go on "forced leave" as it attempted to negotiate a renewal of its license to supply software to gaming cafés.

"I sympathize with the affected employees but there is nothing that I can think of that we can do for them. Although they can apply and qualify to fill up any of our job vacancies in our office," Domingo said in a statement.

Roughly 5,000 employees of PhilWeb and e-games stations could lose their jobs if online gaming operations are permanently shut

PhilWeb's operations have been suspended since its license expired on August 10. Three days later, President Rodrigo Duterte blasted the company's chairman, Roberto Ongpin, as an "oligarch" who must be destroyed.

Ongpin has since resigned as chairman and offered to donate a substantial portion of his 53.76-percent stake in PhilWeb worth P20 billion to the government but was rebuffed.

Last week, Duterte signaled he was willing to allow online gambling to resume as long as proper taxes are paid and operations are moved away from schools and churches.

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