BToto’s lottery equipment subsidiary fights to regain exclusive right

TOTO outlet

KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Philippines Inc (BPI) is seeking three additional years of exclusive right to supply or lease lottery equipment to the state-owned Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) in the Luzon territory. This is as compensation for an alleged breach of contract.

The 88.26% owned subsidiary of Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd (BToto) announced to the Philippine Stock Exchange that the Makati Regional Trial Court had issued a writ of preliminary injunction against PCSO on Aug 10 following the petition filed by BPI’s unit Philippine Gaming Management Corp (PGMC).

BToto said the writ restrained PCSO from conducting or continuing with the public bidding process and from doing anything that would violate the legal right of PGMC as the exclusive supplier/lessor of lottery equipment to PCSO in the Luzon territory.

(Luzon is the Philippines’ most populous island and is the location of Manila.)

According to BPI, PCSO - a Philippine government agency responsible for lotteries and sweepstakes - had in 2012 permitted Pacific Online Systems Corp to supply terminals in Luzon, thus “interrupting” PGMC’s exclusivity.

PGMC is seeking a restoration of three more years of exclusivity in Luzon in accordance to an amended equipment lease agreement inked in 2007 with PCSO. 

On July 11, it filed an application for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against PCSO and its directors, alleging that PCSO was threatening to commit acts in violation of PGMC’s legal rights as PGMC and PCSO had an ongoing arbitration proceedings.

PCSO, which scheduled a public bidding to be held on July 27, 2017, subsequently postponed it till Aug 14. On Aug 10, the court issued the writ of preliminary injunction to restrain PCSO from continuing with this public bidding exercise.

BPI said it was confident that its subsidiary PGMC would prevail in arbitration and be awarded “a restitution of its exclusivity period after August 2018, when the contracts of all other suppliers in Luzon shall expire, for a period of three years to end in 2021.”