Recto favors higher taxes on online gambling

Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said slapping the online gaming industry with a 10-percent tax could generate at least an additional P20 billion in revenues annually.

- BY DERCO ROSAL

Recto told reporters during an informal press chat that it would be more practical to base taxes on gross gaming revenue (GGR)—the total amount that gambling operators earn after paying out winnings, rather than taxing each gamer per bet as this would be more challenging to implement.

The suggestion came in the wake of calls for a total ban on online gambling.

Recto said the current GGR is approximately P200 billion, with the government collecting 30 percent via the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), five percent through the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), and three percent allocated for Pagcor's auditing costs.

"So of the P200 billion, you're collecting around 30 percent-P60 billion. If we increase that by 10 percent, that's P20 billion a year," Recto told reporters.

Pagcor's GGR on the e-games and e-bingo sector reached P51.39 billion in the first quarter. This sector accounted for 49.4 percent of the local gaming industry's total of P104.12 billion during the period.

It can be noted that the egames and e-bingo sector, for the first time, became the top contributor to the industry's total revenues for the period.