(AsiaGameHub) – By: Christian Brooks, prominent financial and business lead commentator
The Philippine gaming market’s years-long online growth streak just hit a wall no one anticipated in 2025. The e-gaming segment that carried last year’s full-year revenue gains is now the biggest drag on 2026 performance. Investors and operators who poured capital into digital gaming platforms 12 months ago are already staring at steep unrealized losses.
Pagcor CEO Alejandro Tengco revealed the updated 2026 gross gaming revenue forecast at the SiGMA Asia Summit 2026 in Manila. Full-year GGR will land between PHP320 billion and PHP350 billion, down 11.6% to 19.2% from 2025’s PHP396.14 billion. Q1 2026 GGR fell 15.9% year-on-year to PHP87.6 billion, with e-gaming GGR dropping 22.4% over the same period. E-gaming lost its top revenue spot to land-based casinos for the first time since 2024. Officials cited e-wallet delinking rules, inflation, weaker discretionary spending and Middle East tensions as key drivers of the slump. Lower-middle-income players, once the core of e-gaming growth, are cutting non-essential spending first to cover rising living costs.
E-gaming operators will have to either slash customer acquisition costs drastically or pivot to higher-income user segments to stay afloat through the slump. Land-based casino operators will likely ramp up mid-tier regional tourist marketing to lock in their regained market lead. Regulators will not reverse the e-wallet delinking rule any time soon, even if full-year revenue lands at the lower end of the forecast range.
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