An anticipated state-of-the-nation address by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr might clarify whether the Philippines will seek a path of tighter regulation of its online gambling sector or an outright ban, suggests a Friday memo from Maybank Securities Inc.
Analyst Raffy Mendoza noted that the presidential address had been scheduled for Monday (July 28).
“We think that heightened regulation instead of an outright ban” of online gaming “is the more sensible choice,” wrote the Maybank analyst.
“We anticipate that President Marcos Jr’s state-of-the-nation address on July 28 will provide that clarity.”
It was reported a fortnight ago, that Mr Marcos was studying calls by some lawmakers for an outright ban.
Maybank noted in its Friday memo that Philippine online games’ gross gaming revenue (GGR) contribution to national gross domestic product (GDP) was “among the world’s highest”.
Mr Mendoza wrote: “By our estimates, e-games contributed about 0.68 percent to the country’s nominal GDP in first quarter 2025, up from 0.1 percent in third quarter 2023.
“While this may seem low, this is much higher compared to the 0.04 percent to 0.30 percent range of developed markets around the world which have legal online gambling, such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.”
Maybank suggested that data regarding any negative impact of online gaming in the Philippines “remains opaque”, but that it was “still plausible that online gambling may be banned as the political noise is reminiscent of how E-Sabong and POGOs were dealt with.”
Those were references first to licensed betting on cockfighting – banned in 2022 under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration – and Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, a previously Pagcor-licensed sector which was shut down progressively from late last year, under the current president.
Maybank observed that in the first quarter the country’s regulator Pagcor, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, reported that gaming industry GGR grew by 27 percent year-on-year to PHP104.12 billion (US$1.83-billion currently).
“Of this, online gambling and bingo alone contributed 49.4 percent of total GGR as online gambling rose by 110 percent year-on-year to PHP47.2 billion, surpassing the contribution of physical casinos (47.3 percent of total GGR) for the first time,” wrote Maybank.
The institution added: “The exponential growth of e-games was most apparent in fourth quarter 2023, when it grew 2.9x quarter-on-quarter, to PHP18.4 billion.”
