Finally some good news for fully regulated gambling in The Philippines as iGaming went stratospheric in Q3 — and helped off-set a predicted US$400 million tax loss from the ending of all controversial POGO operations by this year’s end.
According to PAGCOR, the regulatory Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation, the country’s online or “electronic” gaming sector delivered astonishing 465 percent growth, year-on-year, in the third financial quarter, ending September 30, with revenue of PHP 35.71 billion — the equivalent of £482 million (US$608.47m).
Total revenue from the Southeast Asian nation’s gambling industry–the third largest in the region after China-regulated Macau and Japan–hit PHP94.61 billion in the quarter (£1.27bn/US$1.61bn), reported PAGCOR, compared to PHP68.79 billion (£928.82m) in Q3 2023 and 2.7 percent more than in the previous quarter this year.
Crackdown
“[The] impressive performance is a strong indication that the use of modern technology and mobile gadgets in gaming and amusement will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of gaming,” affirmed Pagcor Chair and CEO Alejandro Tengco.
“This will substantially contribute to the realisation of our PHP100 billion revenue target for 2024.”
The shift to iGaming, which embraces sports betting, iCasino and slots, et al, comes after Filipino President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr. announced a massive crackdown–and eventual closure–of his country’s controversial and mostly Chinese-owned Philippine Off-shore Gaming Operators, known as POGOs, earlier this year.
POGOs have catered to the seemingly insatiable underground gambling market in China, where betting–with the exception of the Special Administrative Territory of Macau, a former Portuguese colony–is outlawed.
South China Sea Dispute
The operation of POGOs has helped fuel the ongoing Sino-Filipino dispute over mineral rights and control of the South China Sea, say political observers.
And in one standout case earlier this year ethnic-Chinese Alice Guo, a former mayor of a town called Bamban fled the Philippines after being accused of running an illegal Pogo and being a spy for the communist superpower.
Guo has since been arrested in Indonesia and returned to the Philippines for trial.
Looking to the elimination of the POGOs, President Marcos and his powerful gambling chief are now hoping to fill the void with fully-regulated state-run and -owned iGaming operators.
For the moment land-based casinos remain the main source of national gambling revenue.
But big plans are afoot for online gaming.
Murder
The Marcos administration has accused many POGOs of “disguising as legitimate entities, their operations have ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, even murder.”
POGOs emerged in the Philippines in 2016 and grew exponentially as operators targeted customers in mainland China.
Today, from their peak of around 300, there are only 42 POGOs still operating legally with a licence, employing some 63,000 Filipino and foreign workers.
Despite fears that the ban will force these remaining Pogos underground, treasury officials in the Philippines believe the benefits outweigh the predicted loss of the equivalent of US$400 million (£316.76m) in tax revenue.
Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan recently told journalists:
“POGOs contribute less than 0.5 percent to national GDP.
“We can live without them.”
