Embattled PhilWeb Corp. will have to wind up its operations following the decision of the state-gaming firm not to renew its license.
“Philweb contract will expire Aug 10, 2016, Pagcor will not renew/extend the contract. PhilWeb informed Pagcor that they are doing their wind up operations,” Philippine Games and Amusement Corp. assistant vice president for corporate communications Maricar Bautista said in a text message.
PhilWeb officials were scheduled to meet with Pagcor officials late Tuesday after Pagcor chief executive Andrea Domingo said the government would not renew PhilWeb’s license.
As a result share price of PhilWeb on Tuesday plunged 17.2 percent to P4.25 apiece from Monday’s close of P5.13.
Share price of PhilWeb since July 1 has dropped by 78 percent from P19 per share to P4.25, after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered a stop to online gambling in his first cabinet meeting.
With the Pagcor’s decision, PhilWeb Corp., which operates and manages electronic casinos owned by the Philippine gaming regulator, will have to shut down operations, including 286 so-called e-games outlets.
PhilWeb earlier said it had been managing the gaming regulator’s e-games network for the past 14 years, remitting P14 billion ($298 million) to the agency for its share of the revenue from the operations.
The company clarified it did not operate online gaming websites. PhilWeb’s electronic games cannot be accessed by office or home computers and its members-only players must be physically present at the cafes to play.
PhilWeb said its meeting with Pagcor aimed to clarify the situation, adding President Duterte might have been misinformed about its operations.
“PhilWeb is merely a software provider to Pagcor for its network of e-Games outlets. We are not online gaming. Our software cannot be played from homes or offices,” PhilWeb president Dennis Valdes said in a previous statement.
Valdes said each e-Games outlet was owned by an individual entrepreneur whose gaming license was issued by Pagcor directly to them. Each e-Games outlet, thus, pays all taxes, as does PhilWeb itself.
“The e-Games network contributed a total of P2.1 billion to Pagcor in 2015, and over P14 billion in the past 14 years,” he said.
PhilWeb Corp. chairman Roberto Ongpin quit his post to save the company, after listed gaming technology company became the focus of President Duterte’s anti-oligarch and anti-online gambling pronouncements.
“The main reason why Mr. Ongpin resigned from PhilWeb is to save the company. He recognized that if he stayed on, PhilWeb’s e-Games outlets could be shut down, which would lead to the loss of its business and eventual closure, affecting more than 5,000 employees,” said Valdes in a statement released through a public relations firm Sunday.