PhilWeb gets provisional accreditation from PAGCOR

Gaming technology firm PhilWeb Corp. on Tuesday said it has received a provisional certificate of accreditation as electronic gaming system (EGS) service provider from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

An accredited EGS service provider can offer software and other services to the operators of PAGCOR-licensed gaming sites for electronic games, PhilWeb said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

In August last year, the regulator decided not to renew a licensing deal with PhilWeb after President Rodrigo Duterte vowed to stop the proliferation of online gambling in the country.

Duterte also tagged Roberto Ongpin, then-chairman of PhilWeb, as among the oligarchs who must be weeded out of the government.

Ongpin has since sold his controlling stake in the gaming technology firm.

PAGCOR will soon conduct an inspection of its servers and gaming facilities, as required under the accreditation rules, after which it may then issue a notice to operate, PhilWeb said.

PAGCOR approved last month an accreditation system for companies to become EGS service providers.

The accreditation process sets a level playing for qualified EGS providers. As such the different operators of PAGCOR’s electronic gaming outlets will be able to choose the service provider or providers that can best assist their outlet operations, PAGCOR chairman and CEO Andrea Domingo said.

“We are grateful to PAGCOR chairman Domingo and the entire board of directors of PAGCOR for their faith in our company and for giving us the opportunity to deliver services to their electronic gaming operators once again," PhilWeb president Dennis Valdes said.
 
PhilWeb chairman Gregorio Araneta III said he is “very confident that PhilWeb can now go back to doing what it does best, which is to be a service provider for electronic games, and in so doing, can contribute a significant amount of revenue to PAGCOR.”

PhilWeb said it remitted over P2 billion to PAGCOR in 2015, the last full year the company was operating before its contract with PAGCOR expired in August 2016. — VDS/KVD, GMA News