PAGCOR stands against online gaming ban

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) is against bills seeking a total ban of online gaming sites, PAGCOR chair Alejandro Tengco said Tuesday at the Senate ways and means committee hearing tackling three proposals seeking to prohibit all forms of online gaming and betting.

Tengco was the lone voice opposed to the ban among the government agency representatives, who said they are supportive of the bills cracking down on online wagers and POGOs because of their contribution to social ills – like gaming addiction in the case of online casinos and slot machines, and kidnapping and human trafficking for illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) hubs.

Tengco said a total ban would be unfair to the legitimate online gaming and POGO hubs, which pay taxes and contribute to the government’s revenue collection. He noted the government stands to lose up to P40 billion if the total ban on online games and POGO becomes a law.

“In these difficult times that everyone is facing today, I believe P40 billion is a big amount if we will forgo that said amount,” Tengco told the Senate panel.

PAGCOR raised P56 billion in gross gaming revenue (GGR) from online games in 2023, of which P13.7 billion was collected by PAGCOR to perform its mandate, Tengco said.

PAGCOR generated P17.5 billion in the first half of 2024 from online games, with the agency projected to generate up to P42 billion by year-end due to collection of license fees, Tengco added.

Instead of banning online games, Tengco hoped to regulate the online gaming sector and encourage illegal gaming sites to register with PAGCOR.

Putting into the fold of the law these illegal gaming sites would generate an additional P200 billion to P250 billion in revenues for the government, Tengco said.

While he is for regulation of POGOs, Tengco said he would not oppose a ban if the Marcos administration chooses to kick out offshore gaming hubs because of their involvement in crimes.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said that he led the hearing to shed light on the possible social ills of online gaming, such as addiction to betting in casinos, slot machines, bingo and other forms of virtual numbers games.

He said there is a need to look into digital online betting platforms in the aftermath of the kidnapping and enforced disappearances of cockfight aficionados who got hooked in e-sabong.

The senator maintained that POGOs should be totally banned because of involvement in human trafficking, hacking, torture, scams and other heinous crimes.