Philippine senator Erwin Tulfo (pictured) is calling for “updates on the online gambling issue” in the country, a month after a Senate committee started discussing a path of tighter regulation for the sector. Three bills seek an outright ban, while two measures propose stricter regulations.
A Tuesday update from the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau cited comments that day by Senator Tulfo at a hearing of the Committee on Games and Amusement.
The release stated that Mr Tulfo, a former secretary at the Department of Social Welfare and Development, under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr administration, was seeking “updates from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) and other government agencies on the enforcement of rules and regulations concerning the proliferation of online gambling”. Pagcor is the country’s gaming regulator-cum-operator.
The statement cited Mr Tulfo directly as saying that a “lack of sufficient safeguard to prohibit minors from online gambling and how development of technology had outpaced enforcement, like illegal online platforms that keep on sprouting and are not immediately detected or cut off,” were among his concerns.
He added that the “continued presence of illegal online gambling operators, the social harm of online gambling and the critical role of e-wallet in facilitating gambling payment” were other topics that ought to be discussed.
Amid the public debate, the Philippines’ central bank in mid-August ordered providers of electronic wallets (e-wallets) and other digital payment systems to remove links that provided access from their interfaces to online gambling platforms in the country.
In July, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr was reported as saying he was studying what grounds there might be for an outright ban on domestic online play.
Pagcor chairman and chief executive, Alejandro Tengco, has repeatedly said the answer is better regulatory enforcement, not a wholesale ban, which might drive play underground and out of reach of the national authorities.
Also on Tuesday, the Philippine Inquirer news outlet reported – citing comment by Mr Tulfo – that he was filing a resolution to investigate those casinos that allegedly overlooked questionable transactions, and failed to report them to the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
Last week, a representative of the AMLC said the body would investigate some of the country’s casinos after allegations that they may be linked to suspected money-laundering activities involving government officials under probe for irregularities in flood control projects.
