GGRAsia – Pagcor warns of fake memo regarding POGOs closure order

Pagcor warns of fake memo regarding POGOs closure order

Jul 29, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), the nation’s gaming regulator, has warned against what it called a “disinformation campaign” via a “memorandum purportedly ordering local government units [LGUs] to immediately terminate” the operations of offshore online gaming businesses in the country. Such memo is “fake”, stated the agency in a Saturday written announcement.

Jessa Mariz Fernandez, head of Pagcor’s Offshore Gaming Licensing Department, said the “supposed memo” to LGUs in Metro Manila dated July 26 “was a forged version of an earlier memorandum” issued by the agency on July 23, a day after the President’s State of the Nation Address.

On July 22, that nation’s leader, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, said that Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) – now known as Internet Gaming Licensees (IGLs) – would need to end their business in that country by year-end.

The “fake memo” advised some LGUs in Metro Manila to terminate POGO operations “within the first week of August”.

Pagcor’s Saturday statement quoted Ms Fernandez as saying: “We have not issued a memorandum ordering LGUs to immediately close down POGO operations in their jurisdiction because the President’s order is very clear: We have until the end of the year to wind down POGO operations, and we will follow that.”

“This is a clear disinformation intended to create chaos and confusion,” she added. “Whoever is behind this clearly has ulterior motives, and we shall ask the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate and unmask them to determine their motives.”

Ms Fernandez stated that Pagcor has advised LGUs that licensed IGLs “can continue operating until we have determined the process of winding down their operations, which we currently have not yet finalised”.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the Philippine capital Manila said on Thursday that the ban against offshore online gaming businesses operating in the Philippines was “a welcome development”.