The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), the country’s casino regulator, has in the first seven months of 2025 voided or withheld more than PHP200 million (US$3.5 million) worth of casino winnings from individuals identified as government officials or employees.
That included elected local government officials, government officers and others, as they are prohibited from entering and gambling in the country’s gaming venues, according to local media reports.
The information was disclosed by Alejandro Tengco (pictured in a file photo), chairman and chief executive of Pagcor, who said the agency was enforcing a ban on government employees and officials from gambling in casinos across the country.
“This year, up to July, there is more than PHP200 million that we have voided, or we did not award prizes hit by these restricted persons: elected LGU [local government unit] officials, government employees,” Mr Tengco said in an interview with True FM radio station.
“Even if they make an appeal, we will never give them their winnings,” he added.
According to the Pagcor boss, the PHP200-million amount was the result of what he described as a “secondary screening” undertaken by the industry for people restricted from playing. This screening process is conducted when a casino player claims his winnings.
Under the existing legal framework, Memorandum Circular No. 06, government officials and employees in the Philippines are banned from entering brick-and-mortar casinos in the country.
Last month, members of the Philippines’ Senate began discussing stricter regulation of the country’s online gambling sector. Amid the political debate, the Philippines’ central bank 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 mid-August, the Philippine Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) banned its own staff, and local government officials, from engaging in online gambling.
“Reports have reached this department that many government officials and employees have been engaging in online gambling activities, which is similar to the evil sought to be prevented by Memorandum Circular No. 06, series of 2016,” stated the DILG at the time. “Such acts adversely affect the integrity and credibility of government service.”
The DILG said in the same statement that the original intent of Memorandum Circular No. 06 had been “undermined by the proliferation and accessibility of online gambling platforms, which now pose a similar, if not greater, threat to the ethical standards expected of public officials and employees”.
