Phl needs to upgrade its gaming standards – Pagcor

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) yesterday defended its move to procure an electronic slot machine system, saying it was time for the country to upgrade its standards to be at par with most of the casinos worldwide.

“Pagcor is investing on a slot machine system (SMS) because there is a need to upgrade its overall operational efficiency to generate more revenues for the Philippine government’s funding needs,” the state gaming firm said in a statement.

“Pagcor is perhaps the only casino operator in the world that uses a manual system in the payment of slots winnings to players and in verifying and documenting winnings from its slot machine operations,” it added.

The government-run gaming firm noted that about 90 percent of the casinos in the United States use the SMS with Ticket In Ticket Out (TITO) functionality.

Pagcor said all the casinos of Macau and Singapore also use this system.

In the Philippines, all Pagcor licensees, including the newly-opened Solaire Resort and Casino of port magnate Enrique Razon already have a slot machine system.

Pagcor said the SMS would connect 5,083 machines installed in 18 different casinos/arcades nationwide.

“The system has several enhanced functionalities and the TITO component is only a small part of it. Included in its other functionalities are audit, internal controls, financial accounting and monitoring, patron management, and marketing modules,” Pagcor said.

According to Pagcor, the SMS will minimize errors, generate reliable player information on a real time basis, provide greater operational efficiency and enhance the gaming experience of customers.

Pagcor stressed that it has not bought a single paper/ticket for the recently procured slot machine system since it has not been installed yet in its casinos.

It also took exception to reports that the SMS/TITO ticket would cost around $ 0.20 or P8, pointing out that the paper to be used for the system is only P0.67 per ticket based on the canvass provided by suppliers to Pagcor.

Aside from this, Pagcor estimates it will utilize only 10 tickets per slot machine per day at 70-percent capacity in terms of the current utilization of these machines. “This means that once the 5,083 machines have been connected to the SMS, we will be using 35,581 tickets a day nationwide which would only cost Pagcor P23,839daily or about P8.7 million a year,” the state-run gaming firm said.

Pagcor likewise belied reports it would spend an additional P147 million for the ticket printers, saying these printers are already built into the SMS package that the agency is procuring.

The agency said it was in fact spending P516.6 million or $12.6 million (at P41 exchange rate) for the entire slot machine system including the ticket printers, a far cry from the P1.8 billion as reported earlier.

Pagcor also maintains that the procurement of the system was above board and it underwent public bidding in compliance with the requirements of Republic Act (RA) 9184.

“Notwithstanding the first two failed biddings for the SMS which under the law would have allowed Pagcor to already go into negotiated procurement, Pagcor still proceeded with a third public bidding to get the best possible offer. Moreover, Pagcor exercised due diligence in verifying the submittals made by the qualified supplier of the system,” the firm said.