MANILA – PhilWeb Corp can reopen this year as long as it changes its operations, the country’s chief gaming regulator said Thursday.

PhilWeb, chaired by businessman Gregorio Araneta III, can’t be the game provider, game station owner and audit service provider at the same time, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp chairperson Andrea Domingo said.

“They can still participate. They can own the station or they can provide games,” Domingo told ANC’s Headstart.

“Either you own the station where people play and you buy the games from other. You don’t provide the games anymore. Audit service is going to be different,” she said.

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Domingo said Araneta had approached her twice to inform her that he had taken over from former PhilWeb chairman Roberto Ongpin.

Ongpin resigned in August last year after President Rodrigo Duterte singled him out in his campaign against “oligarchs.” PAGCOR refused to renew PhilWeb’s license at around the same time after the President declared that he was against online gaming.

News of PhilWeb's possible reopening sent the company's shares higher by 7.2 percent in midtrade.