Amid the urgent need of the government generate more revenues for the pandemic-hit economy, Malacañang has ordered the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) to issue license to operate to some online sabong sites to legalize their operations.
According to Atty. Jose Tria Jr., senior vice president of Pagcor’s Offshore and Online Gaming, “bukod kasi sa hinahabol na income para sa pamahalaan, kailangan na hindi naman naloloko o nadadaya ang mga tumatangkilik ng sabong sa online kaya kailangan talagang bigyan na sila ng license. [Aside from the urgency to play catch up in terms of revenue generation, we also need to ensure that proper measures are place so that games would be legal and above board for all stakeholders, necessitating the issuance of licenses],” he said.
“’Pag may license kasi, namo-monitor namin ang kanilang operasyon, galaw, at income. [With the license we intend to keep tab on the operation and revenue],” Tria said.
It was learned that there were five companies who applied for license to operate online sabong, but only two of them were allowed to start full commercial operations because the rest are yet to pay corresponding fees and taxes.
Only the Lucky 8 Star Quest Inc. of Pitmaster Live and Belvedere Corp. have been issued authority to operate sabong online after fully submitting their paid-up capital and performance bond.
“The rest na wala pang license ay huhulihin ng mga otoridad dahil ito ay iligal at minomonitor na ng [those without license would be monitored and apprehended through the help of the] Department of Information and Communications Technology,” Tria added.
He also said that the Pagcor has collected P100 million per month from each licensed online sabong company.
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