The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) on Tuesday announced that it turned over its largest annual dividend to the national government for its 2018 operating year.

In a statement, the country’s gaming regulator said that thanks to the strong performance of both private and government run casinos, the P16.17 billion in cash dividends it turned over to the national treasury is the “highest one-time remittance, which almost matched the P17.16 billion cumulative cash dividends from 2011 to 2017.”

According to PAGCOR chairman and CEO Andrea Domingo, the record high remittance – which the government uses to fund its social, educational and poverty alleviation programs – as “just the tip of the iceberg”.

“In 2018, we recorded our highest revenue in history, which amounted to P104.12 billion,” said Domingo. “This feat enabled our agency to significantly increase our contributions to nation-building by 42.52 percent.”

From P41.36 billion in total contributions in 2017, PAGCOR remitted a combined P58.95 billion to the national coffers and other mandated beneficiaries in 2018 and of its revenues last year, P67.85 billion came from the agency’s income from gaming operations while P36.27 billion came from other income including the sale of PAGCOR’s land in Entertainment City to Bloomberry Resorts Corp., netting P32.71 billion for the government.

Domingo also explained that every year, PAGCOR remits cash dividends to national coffers, in compliance with the law that requires government-owned and -controlled corporations to remit at least 50 percent of their annual net earnings as cash, stock or property dividends to the national government.