The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) has ordered Leisure and Resorts World Corporation (LRWC) to stop the electronic bingo games operations of its subsidiaries for violating its guidelines.
LRWC is the country?s largest e-bingo operator with over 6,500 e-bingo machines installed nationwide.
The gaming regulator closed down 17 gaming outlets of Total Gamezone Extreme and 36 sites of AB Leisure Exponent for non-compliance with the distance regulation guidelines under Section 2 of Regulation 3 of the Gaming Site Regulatory Manual (GSRM) for Bingo Games version 2.0, which states that gaming sites should be located 200 meters away from schools and places of worship.
LRWC stated that the shutdown might lead to losses of P477 million in revenues and P56.2 million in net income for the end of the year, which is approximately 5 percent of total consolidated 2015 revenues and net income of the LRWC Group. As of July 31, 2016, LRWC?s related operating assets amount to P190 million.
The gaming firm said it will send the letter for reconsideration to Pagcor next week.
?We will still wait for the Pagcor?s reply to our request for reconsideration before we could set our timetable for the resumption of operations of the affected sites. We could not anticipate the exact date on when will Pagcor answer our request,? LRWC said in a statement.
Pres. Rodrigo Duterte earlier said that he intends to close down e-gambling games in the country, including e-bingo. — PNA
