The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has said that he allowed online gambling because the country needs money to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Philippines.- Last year, three operators in Manila were granted licences to develop\u00a0online casino platforms<\/a>. Now, the Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has explained why he took the decision to allow the move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Philippine News Agency, Duterte said: “We don\u2019t have money\u2026 Now that we need money, the most sensible thing is really just to encourage those activities<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May, PAGCOR reported that Philippine GGR<\/a> was down 43.9 per cent year-on-year, <\/strong>mainly due to the impact of Covid-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The possibility of\u00a0casino gaming on Boracay island<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>has resurfaced in recent weeks after the House of Representatives approved the creation of the\u00a0Boracay Island Development Authority<\/strong>\u00a0as a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the bill was\u00a0highly criticised by government agencies<\/strong>, local government units, stakeholders and some congressmen who want to protect the island\u2019s environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Natividad Bernardino<\/strong>, chairman of the Boracay Inter-Agency Rehabilitation Management Group, said: \u201cThe problem of Boracay is one of over-tourism and overdevelopment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat we need in terms of sustaining the rehabilitation and ecological sustainability of the island is a regulatory body instead of a GOCC<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In June,\u00a0PAGCOR<\/a>\u00a0granted permits to four e-sabong firms to operate in the country. PAGCOR hopes to grant permits for six\u00a0e-sabong operators<\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0online betting on cockfights\u00a0<\/strong>has rocketed in the Philippines since\u00a0cockpits closed to spectators at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Philippines\u2019 cockfighting industry is believed to be worth just over US$1bn per year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has said that he allowed online gambling because the country needs money to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has publicly attributed the expansion of online gambling, including online casinos and e-sabong, to the nation's urgent need for revenue to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, following a significant GGR decline. This strategic pivot by PAGCOR is unfolding concurrently with a contentious debate over the governance framework for Boracay Island, balancing economic development with environmental sustainability.","focusai_entities":"Rodrigo Duterte, PAGCOR, Boracay Island Development Authority, Natividad Bernardino, Philippine News Agency, House of Representatives, Boracay Inter-Agency Rehabilitation Management Group","focusai_location":"Philippines, Manila, Boracay Island","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.85), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GGR Recovery Outlook","query":"What is PAGCOR's projected timeline and GGR contribution target from the newly licensed online casino and e-sabong operations, and how does this align with pre-pandemic revenue levels?"},{"label":"Boracay Governance Impact","query":"How might the proposed Boracay Island Development Authority (GOCC) or an alternative regulatory body impact the long-term sustainability and potential for integrated resort development on the island, considering environmental concerns?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,158,16333],"tags":[23911,4138],"class_list":["post-20038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20038","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\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20038"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20060,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20038\/revisions\/20060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}