Businessman Willy Ocier-led Pacific Online Systems Corp. submitted the only accepted offer for a five-year E-Lotto government contract, which is expected to give the company a meaningful foothold in the booming online gambling industry.
Pacific Online, which provides equipment and software for the country’s lotto industry, said on Thursday it was declared by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) as the “single calculated bid for the procurement of five-years lease for web-based application betting platform” or E-Lotto.
“As the single calculated bid, the bid submitted by the corporation will be subjected to post-qualification review by the PCSO-SBAC [special bids and awards committee],” the company said in a stock exchange filing on Thursday.
“Should there be no issues raised during post-qualification, it is expected that the PCSO-SBAC will be issuing its notice of award,” it added.
Ocier is the chair of Pacific Online, which is owned by Belle Corp., a portfolio company of the SM Group.
Trial period
Pacific Online was earlier allowed by the PCSO to conduct a one-year trial period for E-Lotto which. This was launched last Dec.15, 2023, meaning it would have ended in December this year.
But this was cut short by about six months since the testing of the technical and financial viability of the system was finished, the Philippine Star said in a recent report, citing PCSO general manager Mel Robles.
Digital gambling boom
The state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. earlier said the digital gambling sector almost doubled revenues in 2023 to P58.2 billion.
The segment includes e-games, e-bingo, specialty games and sports betting.
“The E-Games sector’s notable performance positively impacted not only the local gaming industry but also Pagcor’s revenue generation efforts,” chair Al Tengco said in an earlier statement.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
