Philippine Senator Sherwin Gatchalian – one of the key figures behind the pending ban on offshore gaming or POGOs – on Thursday expressed concerns over regulations governing the country’s surging eGames sector, although he stopped short of joining some other senators in calling for a total ban.
Gatchalian is one of three senators to have filed bills related to the POGO ban and this week called for legislation officially terminating POGO operations in the Philippines to be expedited through. However, at a press briefing on Thursday, he also discussed eGames, which refers to the provision of online gaming services to domestic customers only.
According to Gatchalian, regulations on eGames have weaknesses in regards to who can open an online account and how easy it is to do so – opening the door for criminal activity.
“Since you can provide a fake name [to open an account], you can also do money laundering,” Philippine News Agency reported the senator as saying.
“Our police said they only get minimal reports of crime in eGaming, but the mere fact that there is a weakness in the regulatory [system], it might get worse in the future.”
Gatchalian did, however, acknowledge that the sector was becoming an important source of revenue for gaming regulator PAGCOR.
“It’s getting bigger,” he said. “In PAGCOR alone [revenue has reached Php22 billion (US$392 million) and at the Bureau of Internal Revenue It is already almost Php12 billion (US$214 million).”
The two other senators to have submitted bills pertaining to the POGO ban, Joel Villanueva and Alan Cayetano, have called for a complete ban on all forms of online gambling.
PAGCOR, however, continues to promote the growth of the eGames sector with Chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco earlier this week announcing he will further slash the taxes charged on online GGR generated by integrated resort operators to 25% by the end of the year – down from a high of 50% when he took charge in August 2022.
Tengco told the audience during a Keynote Address at the IAG Academy Summit that the eGames sector – comprising eCasino, eBingo, sports betting and specialty games – had seen revenues grow by 525% year-on-year in the June 2024 quarter, with PAGCOR now projecting eGames to generate almost Php100 billion (US$1.76 billion) in 2024.
