RECORD INCOME FOR PHILIPPINES GAMBLING GROUP

Posted 1/11/11 : Philweb revenues up by 27 percent despite a tough year
 
Despite difficult global economic conditions, 2010 proved to be a good year for the Manila-based land and online gambling group Philweb, with revenues up 27 percent –  a new company record.
 
Unaudited net income for 2010 was a total of P708 million, a record for the company and 28 percent higher than the P551 million achieved for 2009. For the first time ever, revenues were over a billion pesos, totaling P1.04 billion, a 27 percent year-on-year increase.
 
PhilWeb president Dennis Valdes said, "We are particularly pleased with our 2010 financial results, even though we only opened 19 new PEGS cafes all
year.
 
"On the plus side, we have a new contract with PAGCOR that allows us to open a minimum of 100 new PEGS each year. As a result, we expect our PEGS business in 2011 and beyond to grow even more substantially than it has in previous years. Our new contract is valid until July 2016."
 
Valdes also disclosed that the company remitted a total of P1.3 billion to PAGCOR for 2010, representing PAGCOR's share of the PEGS business. He noted that the PAGCOR share for these businesses come with no capital expenditures or operating expenses on PAGCOR's part. Thus the total remittance flows directly to its bottom line.
 
Valdes believes that the prospects for PhilWeb in 2011 are extremely bright, especially on the international front. PhilWeb previously disclosed that it had received a licence from the Cambodia Ministry of Finance to operate a 6/49 lottery in that country. The licence allows PhilWeb to launch both paper-based and mobile-based forms of the lottery.
 
"The Cambodia license will be a game changer for PhilWeb. Our international expansion strategy has begun to take root, and we expect that the other licenses we are working on, in countries such as Laos, Guam, Vietnam, Saipan, Palau, Papua New Guinea,  East Timor, Nepal and others, will soon come to fruition," Valdes said.