{"id":22667,"date":"2021-09-15T12:38:59","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T15:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=22667"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:39:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:39:03","slug":"philippines-11-arrested-for-illegal-online-e-sabong-betting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-11-arrested-for-illegal-online-e-sabong-betting","title":{"rendered":"Philippines: 11 arrested for illegal online e-sabong betting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Policehave arrested 11 people over illegal e-sabong operations in Bamban town. People were also breaching Covid-19 lockdown rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Officers have arrested 11 people for allegedly being involved in illegal e-sabong betting <\/strong>in Banban Township, Tarlac Province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to police, those arrested were watching and betting on e-sabong in Anupul Village at around 11.30pm so were also breaching the curfew imposed by the government<\/strong> due to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Inquirer reported that those arrested were not wearing mandatory masks <\/strong>and that there was no social distancing. Police seized P6,000 and a paper with a list of bets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGCOR reminds e-sabong players to gamble responsibly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Online betting on cockfights <\/strong>has rocketed in the Philippines since the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) <\/strong>announced the approval of the first e-sabong<\/a> operators. The regulator is now warning players to gamble responsibly <\/strong>to avoid gambling-related harms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

E-sabong grew in popularity after cockpits were closed to spectators <\/strong>at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. In May, PAGCOR announced the first two licensed e-sabong operators had started to operate. In June, it approved two more applications<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulator also warned the public not to participate in cockfighting betting offered by illegal operators<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said: \u201cSabong being closely intertwined with our culture is presently gaining popularity as an online gaming activity among Filipino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGaming responsibly is when a player only bets with money that he or she can afford to lose<\/strong>, making sure that money allocated for daily sustenance and for the family is not used.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Philippines\u2019 cockfighting industry is believed to be worth just over US$1bn per year<\/strong>. PAGCOR<\/a> has collected PHP1bn (US$19.9m) in fees since licenced e-sabong (online cockfighting) operators started to operate in the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Policehave arrested 11 people over illegal e-sabong operations in Bamban town. People were also breaching Covid-19 lockdown rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":22681,"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 authorities arrested 11 individuals for illegal e-sabong operations and COVID-19 protocol breaches in Tarlac Province, highlighting ongoing challenges with unlicensed gambling activities. This incident occurs amidst PAGCOR's efforts to regulate the burgeoning e-sabong market, which has generated significant fees from licensed operators while simultaneously warning against illegal offerings and promoting responsible gambling. The arrests underscore the persistent regulatory compliance challenges within the rapidly expanding online cockfighting vertical.","focusai_entities":"PAGCOR","focusai_location":"Philippines, Tarlac Province, Bamban","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), affiliate_publisher (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.8), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR Enforcement Strategy","query":"What specific enforcement mechanisms and inter-agency collaborations is PAGCOR implementing to curb illegal e-sabong operations and protect the integrity of the licensed market, particularly concerning B2B\/B2C licensing and regulatory compliance?"},{"label":"Impact on Licensed GGR","query":"How do persistent illegal e-sabong activities impact the projected Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) for PAGCOR's licensed operators in the Philippines, and what measures are being considered to mitigate this market leakage?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[24019,233],"class_list":["post-22667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-e-sabong","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22667","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=22667"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22682,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22667\/revisions\/22682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}