Pagcor Chair Andrea Domingo told Wilson flores’ Pandesal Forum: “Marami kaming operators, mga 58 to 60 dati, ngayon 33 na lang ang operating. The service providers are down from 330 to 157, so mga kalahati.”

READ: Soaring high! E-Sabong set to overtake POGOs as Pagcor’s top money maker

Most of the POGOs have closed shop and moved to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos when the Bureau of Internal Revenue started cracking down on the tax remittances of the operators and their Chinese staff starting in the third quarter of 2019.

Domingo said POGO operations were further decimated by the string of lockdown and social restrictions since COVID 19 broke out in March 2020.

READ: FLI reeling from POGO exit, mall vacancies

She said POGO revenues were likely to hit P4 billion to P5 billion in 2021, down 17 to 30 percent from P6 billion in 2019.

Domingo said Pagcor’s other revenues sources have also downsized this year, with less than half of its 800 E-Games and 600 E-Bingo branches in operation.

She said Pagcor was looking to E-Sabong, which should generate P3.5 billion in revenues this year, to sustain the gaming monopoly’s cash flow.

The post POGO industry shrinks by half due to BIR crackdown, COVID restrictions first appeared on Bilyonaryo Business News.