Amid the frenzied gambling boom in the vast Southeast Asia and East Asia regions, Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr. has declared all-out war on his nation’s controversial off-shore POGOs – and thrown down a marker to China, their biggest customer and his greatest geo-political rival.
This week, after months of foreshadowing, Marcos–the scion of notorious Filipino dictators Ferdinand Marcos Snr. and Imelda Marcos, She of the legendary shoe fetish–announced a total ban on all POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators).
And in a bizarre twist to the crack-down on the POGOs, who mostly service pent-up, illegal, demand from digital Chinese gamblers, “Bongbong” has arrested a certain Alice Guo, the mayor of Tarlic City in the Luzon heartland, and accused her of being a spy for Communist China.
Not only has Guo been running an illicit POGO but she’s also boss of a full 360 criminal operation, claims the arrest warrant.
“Their operations have ventured into elicit areas beyond gaming, such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture – even murder,” Marcos told a special session of the Filipino Congress on Tuesday (July 23).
Rivalry
“The grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws must stop.
“It is necessary to stop this disturbance in our society, and [the] desecration of our country,” the president charged.
Against a growing rivalry and confrontation between The Philippines, a staunch U.S. ally, and mainland China over control of the strategic South China Sea and regional political hegemony, Marcos signalled early in his presidential tenure that he wished to sweep away the POGOs, which hitherto have occupied a grey, but lucrative, space in Asian iGaming.
POGOs have subverted and swerved draconian anti-iGaming legislation and controls in the vast market of China, where–apart from horse racing in the city of Guangzhou–gambling is only legal in the former Portuguese colony and entrepôt of Macau.
At their height it was estimated there were over 300 POGOs operating across the Philippine archipelago.
Many were legalised during the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte in 2016.
Boom
But Bongbong–despite the misgivings of his gambling regulator Alejandro Tengco–saw them as an economic, even political, challenge to state supremacy.
And it would appear that with plans to launch a government-sponsored iGaming and sports betting platform already well underway, the president is determined to bring all of gambling’s riches–and tax revenues–firmly under the national ambit and control of the operating and licencing Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) authority.
Across Southeast Asia and East Asia, gambling, in all its popular manifestations–principally iGaming and casino resorts–is on a boom and a roll.
Boost
And in a major boost to regional gambling fortunes, competition between love-hate rivals Japan and South Korea, the two biggest economies behind China–think England and France–is also hotting up.
Japan, with its gaming obsession over quirky Pachinko and predilection for betting on small speed boat racing, has come late to the casino resort party.
But in measured, perfectionist Japanese style it’s coming big-time, with a projected US$8.5 billion mega casino resort (£6.59bn), MGM Osaka, a project of MGM Resorts International and its Japanese partner, financial services firm Orix Corp, set to open in 2030.
Remarkably, it will be Japan’s first-ever legal casino.
The South Koreans, by contrast, have had legal casinos since 1972.
Soft Power
Their very first casino resort, Paradise City, on Yeongjong Island, Incheon, opened for business in 2018.
Today the nation, population 51.65 million, which has emerged as something of a regional soft power leader, with its acclaimed movie industry and K-pop sound, has 18 foreigner-only casinos, attracting gamblers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and, of course, mainland China.
They’re hoping their newest casino resort, the US$2.8 billion (£2.17bn) Inspire in Incheon, which opened in March and is owned and operated by the U.S. Tribal gambling monolith Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment (MGE), will beat off the anticipated future competition from Japan.
Moving from East Asia back to Southeast Asia, Alejandro Tengco, the long-serving Chair and CEO of PAGCOR, insists that the Philippines is now “poised” to overtake Singapore as Asia’s second biggest gambling market after Macau.
Fantasy
Sceptics may well ask which “fantasy island” Tengco inhabits?
Last year Singapore–with just two casino resorts, the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa–smashed the Philippines–boasting extensive POGO operations and 76 casinos–by taking GGR of US$6 billion (£4.65bn), compared to US$4.8 billion (£3.72bn).
Nevertheless, Tengco reportedly claims: “If Singapore doesn’t expand, it will plateau. Don’t be surprised if next year we will surpass them.”
Yet anyone seeking insight need look no further than Thailand (pictured, left) — the eighth most visited country in the world, where it’s only a matter of short time before the annual number of tourists, from a broad spectrum of nations, hits the pre-pandemic average of 40 million visitors-a-year.
According to highly-placed reports, Thailand may issue at least five licences for casino resorts and attract an estimated US$10 billion (£7.76bn) in investment as well as creating many thousand new jobs.
Sawadi Kap!
Heavy-hitters MGM Resorts International, Wynn Resorts, Malaysia’s Genting Berhad and the Las Vegas Sands Corp. have all expressed serious intent.
“We are masters of mass tourism and know how to satisfy the dreams and aspirations of tourists from all nations,” a high-level source, close to the prime minister’s office told iGamingFuture.
For the moment gambling remains nominally illegal in the Buddhist nation.
But, as in latter-day Japan and South Korea, casino resorts are now seen as a magic bullet to drive tourism and generate billions of dollars of much-needed additional revenue, post-Covid-19.
Once Thailand shifts into gear, this observer predicts that the Philippines, Japan, South Korea and Singapore will be choking on dust.
