Local media reports on Wednesday citing figures from licensed online operators in the Philippines suggest more than 50,000 jobs could be lost should there be an outright ban on online gaming in the country.
Media reports suggested that licensed online gaming platforms contributed more than PHP112 billion (US$1.96 billion) to the national government in 2024, with PHP16.6 billion going for healthcare and PHP46.32 billion remitted as dividends to the national treasury.
Outlets also quoted on Wednesday comment from Tonet Quiogue, chief executive of Arden Consult, an advisor to the online sector in that country.
She was reported saying: “The real enemy is illegal, unregulated gambling, not the licensed platforms that follow strict safeguards and contribute meaningfully to national development.”
She added: “Legal operators in the Philippines are already aligned with global best practices.
“They implement robust KYC [know-your-customer], age verification, self-exclusion tools, and real-time monitoring. You ban those, and what you get is a black-market surge.”
Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri and Christopher Go have filed separate bills in the Philippine Congress, seeking to ban online gambling.
Earlier this month, as a chorus of voices against the licensed online sector grew, Alejandro Tengco, chairman of the country’s gaming regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), said the licensed sector had been raising US$1.8 billion yearly for the public coffers via fees payable by operators, meaning that better control – not a ban – was the best solution to lawmakers’ concerns.
On July 16, Pagcor and the country’s Ad Standards Council (ASC) signed a memorandum of understanding to regulate all gambling-related advertisements across all media platforms. Under the agreement, gambling-related advertisements, including on digital platforms, will have to be pre-screened prior to public release.
Last week, Philippine Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said the government was studying the imposition of stricter rules on the online gaming sector in the country.
The head of the Department of Finance said on Thursday that among the options being assessed were an additional 10-percent tax for the online gaming industry, as well as the possibility of a mandatory listing of those companies in the nation’s bourse.
On Friday, the Catholic Church entered the debate, as Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, suggested that what he characterised as social ills linked online gambling outweighed the benefits of revenues it brings into government coffers.
