{"id":20244,"date":"2021-07-14T14:22:27","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T14:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=20244"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:38:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:38:40","slug":"pogos-eye-return-to-the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pogos-eye-return-to-the-philippines","title":{"rendered":"POGOs eye return to the Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Following an exodus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems POGOs are returning to the Philippines and are in need of space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Leechiu Property Consultants has reported that\u00a0Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) now need 17,000 square meters of office space<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After having practically zero demand for office space during the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw an estimated\u00a030 per cent of POGOs leave the Philippines<\/strong>, the consultant now expects more leasing as borders reopen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It told the Rappler newspaper that contractions are at their lowest since the second quarter of 2020, at 135,000 square meters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE),\u00a0less than a hundred POGOs<\/a>\u00a0remained active in the country during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Rodrigo Duterte is pushing for\u00a0approval of Senate Bill 2232\u00a0<\/strong>under which\u00a0POGOs<\/a>\u00a0must pay\u00a05 per cent tax on their gross gaming revenue<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill would also charge foreigners employed by online casinos and their service providers 25 per cent income tax<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Bloomberg, presidential spokesman Harry Roque stated: \u201cWe hope that this measure would not only generate the much-needed revenues in the country<\/strong>\u00a0but also place the industry under stricter government oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Pia Cayetano said POGOs has grown rapidly in the Philippines<\/strong>, generating additional revenues for the government in the past year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

POGOs<\/a> brought in US$149.4m in tax payments last year<\/strong> despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting departure of many firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, considering the proliferation of POGOs in the country, Cayetano said their potential as a source of revenue was much bigger<\/strong> and that the government could have collected more than Php6.43bn (US$133.8m) in 2019 alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following an exodus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems POGOs are returning to the Philippines and are in need of space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18057,"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 Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) are demonstrating a resurgence in the Philippines, evidenced by a renewed demand for 17,000 square meters of office space following a significant exodus during the Covid-19 pandemic. This recovery coincides with legislative efforts, specifically Senate Bill 2232, which proposes a 5% tax on POGO Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and a 25% income tax for foreign employees, aiming to enhance government revenue and regulatory oversight.","focusai_entities":"Leechiu Property Consultants, Rappler, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Rodrigo Duterte, Bloomberg, Harry Roque, Pia Cayetano","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.85), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Tax Impact?","query":"What is the projected net impact of the proposed 5% GGR tax and 25% foreign employee income tax on POGO operational profitability and the overall Philippine treasury revenue, considering potential elasticity of demand for office space?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution?","query":"How does Senate Bill 2232 integrate into the broader Philippine iGaming regulatory compliance and governance frameworks, and what are the anticipated enforcement mechanisms to ensure adherence and prevent illicit operations?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,158,16333],"tags":[229,405,15789],"class_list":["post-20244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling","tag-pagcor","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20244","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=20244"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20269,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20244\/revisions\/20269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}