{"id":20831,"date":"2021-07-29T16:21:54","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T16:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=20831"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:08:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:08:39","slug":"pagcor-against-proposals-to-give-pogos-tax-advantages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-against-proposals-to-give-pogos-tax-advantages","title":{"rendered":"PAGCOR against proposals to give POGOs tax advantages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PAGCOR chairman Andrea Domingo said certain groups are lobbying for tax advantages in special economic zones in the new bill that sets income and gaming taxes on online casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- As Congress continues discussing the bill under which\u00a0Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO)<\/a>\u00a0would have to pay\u00a05 per cent tax on their gross gaming revenue<\/strong>, Andrea Domingo, PAGCOR chairman, has disagreed with some proposed changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Domingo, some groups want to provide advantages to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domingo stated: “Special means special. In government there shall be no such thing<\/strong>, all policies, regulations, laws should be uniformly applied.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the law is finally approved, POGOs must pay\u00a0a 5 per cent tax on their gross gaming revenue<\/strong>. The bill would also make\u00a0foreigners employed in online casinos and their service providers pay 25 per cent income tax<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/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, House Ways and Means Committee <\/strong>believes that under the new bill, the government could collect PHP13.4bn (US$266.6m) in its first year of implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, presidential spokesman Harry Roque<\/a> stated: \u201cWe hope that this measure would not only generate the much-needed revenues in the country<\/strong> but also place the industry under stricter government oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PAGCOR chairman Andrea Domingo said certain groups are lobbying for tax advantages in special economic zones in the new bill that sets income and gaming taxes on online casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18666,"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 Congress is debating a bill to impose a 5% Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) tax on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and a 25% income tax on their foreign employees. PAGCOR chairman Andrea Domingo opposes lobbying efforts for tax advantages within special economic zones, advocating for uniform application of the new regulations. This legislation aims to significantly increase government revenue and enhance industry oversight.","focusai_entities":"Andrea Domingo, PAGCOR, Philippine Congress, House Ways and Means Committee, Harry Roque, Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO)","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Tax Impact?","query":"What is the projected net impact on POGO profitability and operational footprint in the Philippines, considering the 5% GGR tax and 25% foreign employee income tax, and how might this influence market consolidation or exits?"},{"label":"Special Zone Fairness?","query":"How will the proposed uniform application of tax laws, as advocated by PAGCOR, affect the competitive landscape for POGOs currently operating within or considering special economic zones, and what are the implications for regulatory equity?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,158,16333],"tags":[229,405,15789],"class_list":["post-20831","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\/20831","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=20831"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20840,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20831\/revisions\/20840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}