THE Philippines’s gross gaming revenues (GGR) dropped to P88.136 billion in the second quarter due to weaker earnings from electronic games (e-games) as players wagered less and felt the pinch of the Middle East crisis.
State gaming regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) reported last Monday that the GGR declined by 20.33 percent from the P110.631 billion notched in the same period a year ago.
‘The decline was driven by several factors, including the impact of inflation and the geopolitical crisis in the Middle East, which weighed on consumer spending, particularly on discretionary activities,’ Pagcor Chairman and CEO Alejandro H. Tengco was quoted in a statement as saying.
Revenue from electronic gaming, which includes e-games, e-bingo, bingo and poker, declined by 37.21 percent to P39.851 billion in the second quarter from P63.471 billion a year earlier. It accounted for 45.21 percent of total gross gaming revenue during the period.
Licensed casinos, meanwhile, overtook electronic gaming as the industry’s largest source of revenue.
Land-based casinos generated P45.37 billion, or 51.49 percent of total gaming revenue in the second quarter, up by 2.93 percent from P44.086 billion in the same period last year.
Pagcor-operated casinos also contributed P2.905 billion, equivalent to 3.30 percent of industry GGR. This was 5.42 percent lower than the P3.072 billion recorded a year ago.
This brought total GGR to P175.738 billion in the first half of 2026, down by 18.16 percent year-on-year from P214.752 billion.
The decline in gaming revenues comes as the state gaming regulator grapples with weaker earnings from gaming operations.
Pagcor’s total revenue also fell by 26.64 percent to P43.32 billion in the first half of the year from P59.05 billion in the same period last year as lower earnings from gaming operations weighed on its financial performance.
Tengco said the gaming industry could eventually recover as operators improve services, adopt new technologies and strengthen responsible gaming measures.
Regulatory tightening and weaker consumer spending are seen to weigh on the country’s gaming revenues this year, according to Standard and Poor’s (S and P) Global Ratings, which forecasts the GGR to decline by 7 percent before recovering by 2 percent in 2027.
This puts the Philippines behind other Asia-Pacific gaming markets, such as Macao special administrative region (SAR) and Singapore-the region’s most attractive markets-but ahead of New Zealand in terms of GGR growth.
In 2025, total GGR reached P396.138 billion, up by 6.39 percent from P372.334 billion in 2024.