PAGCOR Prices Casino Filipino at PHP20bn to PHP30bn as Losses Head for PHP7bn

The Philippine regulator's chairman says its own casino chain is "bleeding like mad" and will lose at least PHP7 billion this year, and he now values the 35 casinos he wants to sell at less than half of earlier estimates. The decision to sell still rests with the President.

• PAGCOR chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco has put a preliminary value of PHP20 billion to PHP30 billion, approximately $318 million to $477 million, on the 35 Casino Filipino casinos the regulator plans to sell, according to The Philippine Star and Context.ph
• Tengco said Casino Filipino lost about PHP6 billion in 2025 and will lose at least PHP7 billion, approximately $111 million, in 2026, which he blamed largely on personnel costs
• The sale depends on the decoupling of PAGCOR's regulator and operator roles, which Tengco expects to reach the President within October, with an exit from casino operations targeted for late 2027
• Partners at 23 revenue-sharing casinos would get a right of first refusal and the 12 PAGCOR runs outright would go to bidders; severance is estimated at about PHP20 billion
• Earlier estimates were PHP60 billion to PHP80 billion, and PAGCOR's own results show revenue at the casinos it operates fell 18.12% to PHP10.38 billion in 2025

Tengco Says the State Chain Is Losing Money Faster Than It Can Be Sold

Alejandro Tengco, chairman and chief executive of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), set out the terms of the proposed Casino Filipino sale to reporters at the grand opening of Kaban Hotel and Casino Boracay at the weekend, according to local reports. "Casino Filipino is bleeding like mad," he said, according to Context.ph. "For 2026, I'm looking at a loss of P7 billion. That's the minimum. We lost about P6 billion in 2025." The Philippine Star reported that he blamed the losses largely on personnel costs; the Manila Bulletin cited operating costs and competition from private licensees.

PAGCOR's network comprises 35 casinos, 12 operated entirely by the agency and 23 under revenue-sharing arrangements with private partners, according to The Philippine Star. The revenue-sharing partners would have a right of first refusal on the sites they run, while the 12 wholly operated casinos would be offered to bidders, Context.ph reported. Among those 12, Cebu earns the most, followed by Tagaytay, Angeles, Davao and Malabon. Tengco said existing licensees, including Entertainment City operators, have shown "strong interest".

PAGCOR would hire a financial adviser to set a final valuation only if President Ferdinand Marcos Jr approves the decoupling, according to Context.ph. Tengco expects the Governance Commission for Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations (GCG) to send its recommendation to the Office of the President within October. Asked what follows approval, he said: "Then we execute." He expects PAGCOR to complete its exit from casino operations by the third or fourth quarter of 2027, The Philippine Star reported.

Severance, Payroll and a Shrinking Revenue Line

Severance is estimated at about PHP20 billion, currently covered by PAGCOR's retirement trust fund, with sale proceeds to fill any gap, according to Context.ph. PAGCOR has more than 10,000 approved positions and about 8,000 employees, according to the Manila Bulletin; how many work at Casino Filipino sites has not been disclosed. At Kaban, PAGCOR is testing another model: the operator pays PAGCOR 35% of gross gaming revenue but pays its own staff, an arrangement Tengco said could be replicated.

PAGCOR's own figures show the decline. Revenue from PAGCOR-operated casinos fell 18.12% to PHP10.38 billion in 2025, according to its full-year results. It fell a further 8.67% in the first half of 2026, and in the second quarter PAGCOR's casinos took 3.30% of industry GGR. Tengco expects PAGCOR's own net income to fall below PHP5 billion this year, from PHP17.47 billion in 2025, partly because of higher remittances to the Philippine Sports Commission after a Supreme Court ruling, the Manila Bulletin reported. The valuation has fallen with the revenue: Tengco cited PHP30 billion to PHP50 billion in December 2025, according to AGB, down from earlier estimates of PHP60 billion to PHP80 billion, according to Philippine law firm Geronimo Law.

The Value Is in the Losses Stopped, Not the Price Received

In cash, the sale barely pays for itself: a severance bill of about PHP20 billion matches the bottom of the valuation range, from a trust fund that is PAGCOR's own money. If the PHP6 billion is an operating loss on PHP10.38 billion of revenue, the chain spent roughly PHP1.60 for every peso it took in 2025, though PAGCOR has not published how the loss is calculated. The case for selling is the PHP7 billion a year that stops when the casinos go. One year's losses equal between a quarter and a third of the estimated sale value, and a price that has fallen at every update suggests time is not on the seller's side.

The Right of First Refusal Tilts 23 of the 35 Casinos Toward Incumbents

Tengco expects the revenue-sharing partners to bid for the casinos they already run, leaving the 12 wholly operated sites, led by Cebu, as the part of the portfolio open to Entertainment City operators on equal terms. Even there, the offer is thin. Tengco has said PAGCOR owns almost none of the real estate it operates on: "What we are selling here is the license and future revenue," he said in remarks cited by Geronimo Law, which warned in July that landlords' consent to lease transfers could decide whether the deal closes and that bidders would resist any obligation to absorb staff. Licences, leases and a workforce a buyer may not want are a harder sell than casinos, which helps explain a price that has more than halved.

The Conflict of Interest Ends, but the Revenue Question Travels With It

"You do not want a regulator to regulate its own operations," Tengco said in September, and a sale would end the arrangement in which PAGCOR competes with licensees it supervises, including the four integrated resorts it has told to install smart tables from 1 January 2027. The Kaban model, a 35% GGR share without the payroll, shows the agency still weighing its income alongside its role. That matters because about 70% of PAGCOR's income goes to nation-building contributions under current law, as Tengco noted in December, and cities hosting Casino Filipino branches were allocated PHP678.10 million in 2025. The President will weigh a cleaner regulator against those remittances, in a year in which Tengco is also pressing for an online gaming law by 2028.

PAGCOR has said for four years that it should not run casinos, and it now has a loss figure that makes the argument for it. Whether the sale also brings in money will depend on landlords, revenue-sharing partners and a President who has yet to sign.