Philippine Electronic Gaming Revenue Falls 37.23% in First Nine Months of 2026 After Overtaking Casinos in Record 2025
Philippine electronic gaming revenue fell 37.23% YoY to PHP27.63 billion in the first nine months of 2026 after online overtook casinos with 50.77% of GGR in record 2025. E-wallet link removals from August 2025 and economic pressures from Middle East tensions are the cited drivers. The decline outpaced the 3.22% casino drop.
SCCG Take — Online gambling's faster contraction reveals its acute vulnerability to payment policy changes, requiring operators to diversify access methods for resilience.
Philippine online gaming revenue has continued its decline through the first nine months of 2026. The sector that set a record in 2025 by surpassing traditional casinos now shows heightened sensitivity to regulatory and economic shifts.
PAGCOR data indicates electronic gaming revenue dropped 37.23% year on year to PHP27.63 billion from PHP44.03 billion. Licensed casinos recorded a milder 3.22% decline. Overall PAGCOR revenue fell 23.41% to PHP64.41 billion. The first half had already seen revenue from e-games, e-bingo and bingo grantees fall 41.85% to PHP18.6 billion from PHP32 billion a year earlier.
In 2025 online platforms generated PHP201.12 billion, or 50.77% of total industry gross gaming revenue of PHP396.14 billion. That marked the first time digital play exceeded land-based casino revenue.
Payment Restrictions and Economic Pressures Drive the Decline
In August 2025 the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ordered supervised payment providers to remove in-app links redirecting users to gambling websites. GCash and Maya disabled the links from August 16. GCash held 81 million active users at the start of 2025. The change did not end digital payments for gambling but eliminated a direct route from major e-wallets.
Alejandro Tengco, PAGCOR chairman, acknowledged the restrictions contributed to weaker third-quarter online revenue. Tengco also cited broader economic factors including Middle East tensions and their effect on consumer spending. According to reporting by World Casino News, these elements have produced a steeper fall in electronic gaming than in the casino sector.
Why Online Revenue Proved More Sensitive Than Expected
The 2026 figures stand in sharp contrast to 2025's milestone. Electronic gaming expanded rapidly when payment access was seamless but has contracted just as quickly when habits and conditions changed. This exposes a core limitation: online channels remain more exposed to adjustments in financial infrastructure and macroeconomic headwinds than the prior record suggested. Operators and regulators in the Philippines must now weigh how to address that exposure without undermining the digital segment's established scale.
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