The Philippines enters 2026 with a gaming map profoundly different from previous years. The closing data for 2025, published by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), confirm that the online segment surpassed licensed casinos for the first time as the main source of gross gaming revenue (GGR), capturing 50.77% of the industry’s total. This result is not just a statistical milestone: it is the roadmap on which the sector will build its strategy during the current year.
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What 2025 left in the Philippines: total growth with an internal fracture
The close of 2025 showed a year-on-year growth of 6.4% compared to 2024, with total revenues reaching 396.14 billion Philippine pesos, equivalent to $6.61 billion. However, this overall growth revealed an increasingly marked gap between the different market segments.
Licensed casinos recorded a 9.6% drop in revenue, which stood at 182.5 billion Philippine pesos, about $3.04 billion. PAGCOR-operated casinos suffered an even more pronounced setback, with a 21% decrease to 12.52 billion Philippine pesos, equivalent to $209 million. In contrast, online gaming grew by 30% and reached 201.1 billion Philippine pesos, consolidating itself as the real engine of the sector.
The new digital leadership and its implications for 2026
Alejandro H. Tengco, PAGCOR Chairman and CEO, summarized the changing era when presenting the results: “The electronic games and online gaming segment has surpassed licensed casinos as the largest contributor to GGR. Online gaming is no longer a complementary segment, but has become the main driver of overall growth.”
This statement carries concrete weight for 2026. The online segment, which includes electronic bingo, electronic games, bingo concessionaires, and land-based and remote poker, enters the current year with a dominant position that will force regulators, operators, and land-based casinos to rethink their strategies. For PAGCOR, the immediate challenge is to sustain this dynamism without sacrificing the control and transparency standards that the agency has been reinforcing.
The lesson of e-wallets: regulation with direct business impact
One of the most revealing episodes of 2025 was the slowdown in the third quarter, caused by the disengagement of e-wallets as a payment channel for online players. The measure, implemented to improve transaction traceability and protect users, had a visible cost in quarterly revenues and demonstrated how sensitive the digital segment is to changes in payment infrastructure.
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In 2026, this experience serves as both a warning and a precedent. Any regulatory adjustment to access channels or collection systems can generate immediate effects on the volume of online gaming, which increases the demand for planning for both the regulator and the operators who depend on these flows.
PAGCOR’s regulatory agenda for the current year
Tengco was clear in projecting the agency’s priorities: “Our goal is not simply to increase revenues, but to ensure that this growth is sustainable, transparent, and compliant with regulations thanks to a stronger regulatory environment that supports the long-term stability of the gaming industry.”
In practice, this means that 2026 will be a year of regulatory consolidation for the Philippine market. PAGCOR will seek to strengthen supervision mechanisms over the online segment, reinforce controls over digital payment channels, and, at the same time, find formulas that allow land-based casinos to regain competitiveness without relaxing the demands of the current framework.
Land-based casinos face their biggest challenge in years
For licensed casinos, 2026 begins with the accumulated pressure of an adverse year and an underlying trend that does not favor their traditional model. The 9.6% drop in their revenues during 2025 responds to multiple factors: competition from the digital channel, changes in consumption habits, lower influx of high-spending tourists, and the sustained increase in operating costs.
In this new scenario, land-based operators face the challenge of adapting to an environment where the digital offering gains prominence and redefines the user experience. Reversing this trend in the short term will require more than operational adjustments. The Philippine market of 2026 demands that land-based casino operators rethink their value proposition in an environment where players have immediate access to a broad, regulated, and constantly expanding digital offering.
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