{"id":43354,"date":"2017-01-03T16:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T00:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=43354"},"modified":"2017-01-03T13:45:30","modified_gmt":"2017-01-03T21:45:30","slug":"philweb-sells-german-operations-help-buy-back-philippine-license","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philweb-sells-german-operations-help-buy-back-philippine-license\/","title":{"rendered":"Philweb Sells German Operations to Help Buy Back Philippine License"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philweb, the beleaguered Philippine online gambling giant, has sold its interests in a German tech company as it seeks to raise funds to bid for its old gambling license.<\/p>\n

\"Philweb
Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte (left) whose animosity towards Roberto Ongpin (right) has left online gaming giant Philweb bidding for its own license. (Image: ABS-CBN News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Philweb was the Philippine\u2019s largest operator of online gaming caf\u00e9s until last August, when gaming regulator PAGCOR suddenly refused to renew its gambling license.<\/p>\n

Now Philweb must bid in public auction for its chance to regain a license and reopen the 299 outlets throughout the Philippines that formerly comprised its gambling empire.<\/p>\n

Mixed Messages<\/b><\/h2>\n

The message coming from the Philippines<\/a> on its online gambling policy is increasingly confused. Rodrigo Duterte, the country\u2019s firebrand demagogue president, had vowed to eradicate the sector, before flip-flopping and agreeing to tolerate it, provided there were no outlets \u201cnear schools or churches.\u201d But just before Christmas, he lurched back to his previous stance. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am ordering the closure of all online gaming (firms),\u201d he said. \u201cAll of them. They have no use.”<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, under these precarious circumstances, the licensing bid appears to be going ahead. Philweb said it had collected $750,000 for the sale of its shares in Acentic GmbH, plus a further $2.05 million in the full settlement of loans.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis amount will be utilized by the company [Philweb] to cover its overhead while it awaits the reissuance of its license from PAGCOR,\u201d said Philweb in a disclosure to the Philippine stock exchange.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Resurrecting Philweb<\/b><\/h2>\n

The focus of Duterte\u2019s animosity seemed to be as much the online gambling sector as the\u00a0 <\/span>Philweb chairman, Roberto Ongpin. The president described Ongpin as an \u201coligarch\u201d whose meddling influence-peddling in government was \u201cembedded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI am fighting a monster,\u201d he declared, of oligarchs in general. \u201cI am just two months old (into the presidency) but, believe me, I will destroy their clutches in our country.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It has been suggested in the Philippine press that Ongpin\u2019s name was poisoned to Duterte by his commercial enemies and that the president now believes he may have been rash in his hounding of the Philweb chairman. But not before Ongpin was forced to resign from his position and give up his entire stake in the company.<\/p>\n

As a last-ditch attempt to save the situation and its 6,000 employees, Ongpin offered to donate almost all his majority stake to PAGCOR, an offer that was refused.<\/p>\n

The role of resurrecting Philweb<\/a> and overseeing the licensing bid has now passed to the second major shareholder, Gregorio Araneta III.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philweb, the beleaguered Philippine online gambling giant, has sold its interests in a German tech company as it seeks to raise funds to bid for its old gambling license. Philweb was the Philippine\u2019s largest operator of online gaming caf\u00e9s until last August, when gaming regulator PAGCOR suddenly refused to renew its gambling license. Now Philweb […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":43356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,10,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPhilweb Sells German Operations to Help Buy Back Philippine License<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Philweb raising money to prepare for license bid to save Philippine operations\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philweb Sells German Operations to Help Buy Back Philippine License\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Philweb raising money to prepare for license bid to save Philippine operations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philweb-sells-german-operations-help-buy-back-philippine-license\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-04T00:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-03T21:45:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/rodrigo-duterte-roberto-ongpin-080316.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"950\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"633\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philweb-sells-german-operations-help-buy-back-philippine-license\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philweb-sells-german-operations-help-buy-back-philippine-license\/\",\"name\":\"Philweb Sells German Operations to Help Buy Back Philippine License\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philweb-sells-german-operations-help-buy-back-philippine-license\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philweb-sells-german-operations-help-buy-back-philippine-license\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/rodrigo-duterte-roberto-ongpin-080316.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-04T00:00:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-03T21:45:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Philweb raising money to prepare for license bid to save Philippine operations\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philweb-sells-german-operations-help-buy-back-philippine-license\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philweb-sells-german-operations-help-buy-back-philippine-license\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philweb-sells-german-operations-help-buy-back-philippine-license\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/rodrigo-duterte-roberto-ongpin-080316.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/rodrigo-duterte-roberto-ongpin-080316.jpg\",\"width\":950,\"height\":633,\"caption\":\"Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte (left) whose animosity towards Roberto Ongpin (right) has left online gaming giant Philweb bidding for its own license. 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