{"id":12749,"date":"2020-12-15T23:27:30","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T23:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=12749"},"modified":"2026-04-23T23:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:10:13","slug":"philippines-could-get-us26m-from-e-sabong-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-could-get-us26m-from-e-sabong-tax","title":{"rendered":"Philippines could get US$26m from e-sabong tax"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The bill to tax 5 per cent of revenues on e-sabong transmissions from legal cockpits has been passed to the Philippines Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- The House of Representatives in the Philippines has approved a bill that proposes to tax online betting on sabong events held in legal cockpits and transmitted through streaming systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Bill 8065, which was introduced by Joey Sarte Salceda<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, places a 5 per cent tax on revenues from an ongoing legal activity that had not yet been taxed in the Philippines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes at a time when the government is seeking to boost gaming tax collection, which has plunged due to Covid-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill passed its third reading at the House of Representatives on Tuesday with 215 votes in favour and one against and was sent to the Senate for deliberation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the hearing, Sarte Salceda said the tax could raise at least Php1.25bn (almost US$26m) in its first full year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He believes the bill, which would amend the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, could help clarify some of the grey areas regarding taxes on online activities and help raise gaming tax income<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, which stood at Php13.7bn in 2019, according to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If approved, the measure would exclude PAGCOR<\/em><\/strong> activities as well as those run by the Philippine Charity and Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). It would also allow the BIR to inspect and accredit the devices used to record wagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal would also empower the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) to regulate the fair conduct of offsite betting on locally licensed cockfights and derbies, including the devices used by gaming operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaming operators will have to disclose offsite betting activities on licenced games to the BIR and other regulatory agencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bill to tax 5 per cent of revenues on e-sabong transmissions from legal cockpits has been passed to the Philippines Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Philippine House of Representatives has passed House Bill 8065, proposing a 5% tax on revenues from e-sabong transmissions from legal cockpits, excluding PAGCOR and PCSO operations. This legislative move aims to bolster gaming tax collection, which has been impacted by Covid-19, and is projected to generate Php1.25bn annually. The bill also empowers the BIR and GAB with regulatory oversight over offsite betting devices and operator disclosures.","focusai_entities":"House of Representatives, Joey Sarte Salceda, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), PAGCOR, Philippine Charity and Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), Games and Amusements Board (GAB)","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), tech_data (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"E-sabong Tax Impact","query":"What is the projected net revenue impact for key e-sabong operators in the Philippines, considering the 5% tax on gross gaming revenue (GGR) and potential operational adjustments?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution","query":"How will the expanded regulatory mandates of the BIR and GAB integrate with existing PAGCOR licensing and governance frameworks for other online gaming verticals, and what are the implications for B2B\/B2C compliance?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,158,16333],"tags":[128,2895],"class_list":["post-12749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-philippines","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12749"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777010490,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12749\/revisions\/777010490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}