Online casino operator nearly doubles its earnings

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines first and largest publicly-listed internet company said earnings nearly doubled for the first six months of the year, boosted by its online casino operations. PhilWeb Corp said earnings surged to P149.6 million from January to June, 78 percent more than P84.2 million it reported during the same period last year. “This improvement reflects the sustained rapid growth of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. [PAGCOR] e-Games café system managed by the company on behalf of PAGCOR, as well as strong gains from PhilWeb’s investment in ISM Communications Corp," the company said in a statement. The company’s revenues totaled P171.4 million, 34 percent higher than the same period last year, which was brought about by the launch of new PAGCOR e-Games cafés. Since December 2007, 21 new cafés were opened, bringing the nationwide network to 97 facilities. PhilWeb’s strong growth were also boosted by the hike in average daily bet volumes, which are now nearly P150 million, compared to less than P80 million last year. “The number of players patronizing internet cafés have also increased to an average of 45,000 per day versus less than 25,000 this time last year," the company said. For the same period, PhilWeb earned P49.6 million, primarily from the excellent results delivered by ISM’s investments in Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc. - GMANews.TV