Pagcor defends upgrade to electronic slot machine system

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. defended on Wednesday its move to an electronic slot machine system with ticket-in, ticket-out (TITO) functionality, saying that the upgrade is necessary for the Philippines to keep up with the rest of the world.

“To date, 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. This means that Pagcor has to upgrade its slots operations by installing an electronic slot machine system,” it said.

The new system will connect 5,083 machines installed in 18 different casinos and arcades across the Philippines.

“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.

Pagcor said 10 tickets will be utilized per slot machine per day at 70 percent capacity, with the paper to be used for the system is priced at P0.67 per ticket.

“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 P23,839.00 daily or about P8.7 million a year,” it said.

Pagcor will pay P516.6 million for the entire slot machine system, including ticket printers costing P147 million.

The new system will be a total migration from the current manual system, which uses a lot of paper. — BM, GMA News