Philippine Gaming Revenue Drops 11.41% in Q3

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, the state regulator known as PAGCOR, says the country’s gaming industry took in ₱83.72 billion in the third quarter of 2026. That’s down 11.41% from ₱94.51 billion in the same quarter a year earlier, and the figures, released on Friday, November 6, put almost all of the damage on the electronic side of the market.

The number is gross gaming revenue, the money operators keep after paying out winnings, so it measures what players lost rather than what they bet. On that measure, land-based casinos barely moved while e-games and e-bingo fell hard.

E-Games Take Almost the Whole Hit

PAGCOR’s electronic gaming segment, which groups e-games, e-bingo and Bingo grantees, earned ₱35.28 billion. That is a drop of 22.86% from ₱45.73 billion, and BusinessMirror, which reported the release, said it accounted for the bulk of the industry’s decline.

Licensed casinos told a different story. They brought in ₱45.38 billion, down just 0.40% from ₱45.56 billion, and their 54.20% share made them the biggest contributor to industry revenue again after electronic gaming had overtaken them in earlier periods.

The casinos PAGCOR runs itself, the Casino Filipino branches, did worse than the private resorts. Their revenue fell 4.81% to ₱3.03 billion from ₱3.18 billion.

Tengco Blames Prices, Not Policy

Alejandro Tengco, PAGCOR’s chairman and chief executive, pointed to inflation and geopolitical uncertainty. “These conditions have affected spending on discretionary activities, including gaming, and contributed to the weaker performance of certain segments,” he said.

The wider economy backs him up. Inflation hit 7.8% in October, its highest level in more than three years, up from 7.2% in September. On Monday, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the economy grew just 2.1% in the third quarter, its weakest showing since the pandemic, according to BusinessWorld.

A Slower Fall, and a Lower Target

Tengco’s good news is the pace. The industry’s revenue fell 20.33% in the second quarter, so the decline has eased even as the economy has weakened. “We recognize the challenges facing the industry, but the slower pace of decline in the third quarter is an encouraging development,” he said.

PAGCOR now expects revenue of at least ₱350 billion for the full year, an outlook it called “conservative” given the state of the economy.

The E-Wallet Cut Still Shapes the Comparison

Prices aren’t the only thing that changed. In August 2025 the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank, told every institution it supervises to remove links providing in-app gambling access from mobile payment apps and websites within 48 hours. The order followed Monetary Board Resolution No. 805, dated August 14, 2025, and the e-wallet giant GCash and digital lender Maya both said they would comply.

That timing matters for this comparison. In November 2025 Tengco said June and July of that year had produced exceptionally high revenue, back when e-wallets could still send users to gambling sites. “The delinking of e-wallets resulted in a short-term decline in activity toward the latter part of the quarter,” he said then.

PAGCOR’s Own Income Falls Faster

The regulator’s own books show the same squeeze. On October 29, PAGCOR said its revenue for the first nine months of 2026 fell 23.41% to ₱64.41 billion from ₱84.09 billion. Its income from electronic gaming dropped 37.23% to ₱27.63 billion, and Rappler noted that the e-wallet restrictions may be adding to the slowdown to a lesser extent.

An App to Spot Licensed Sites

PAGCOR is also trying to pull players back from unlicensed operators. On October 19 it said it’s targeting a December launch for a mobile app that tells users which online gaming platforms it licenses, part of a broader push against illegal online gambling.

“This platform will give players a reliable way to verify which online gaming platforms are licensed by PAGCOR,” Tengco said. The board approved the project on October 8, and the Development Bank of the Philippines Data Center will build and run it at no cost to PAGCOR. The developer still has to pass a six-month assessment of a proof of concept before full-scale rollout, so December is a target and not a promise.

For now, the money is back on the casino floor. Licensed casinos earned ₱45.38 billion in the quarter, about ₱10 billion more than the entire electronic segment.