{"id":24617,"date":"2021-11-17T11:12:19","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T14:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=24617"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:45:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:45:01","slug":"pagcor-warns-e-sabong-platforms-should-not-accept-overseas-bets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-warns-e-sabong-platforms-should-not-accept-overseas-bets","title":{"rendered":"PAGCOR warns e-Sabong platforms should not accept overseas bets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>PAGCOR has warned that e-sabong platforms are not allowed to accept bets from outside The Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.-\u00a0<strong>The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR)\u00a0<\/strong>has warned that any operators found to accept e-sabong bets from overseas will face penalties.\u00a0The regulator said it was concerned that<strong>\u00a0overseas workers in the Philippines<\/strong>\u00a0are increasingly betting on e-Sabong platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The regulator emphasised that its rules stipulate that\u00a0<strong>e-Sabong platforms should not accept bets from outside the Philippines<\/strong>, nor should sites be visited outside the country.\u00a0<strong>E-sabong operators need to submit a certificate from a game lab<\/strong>, proving that website is not accessible outside the Philippines and that IP addresses from other countries are blocked or restricted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PAGCOR stated: &#8220;We are not oblivious to the fact that certain websites are accessible abroad. These, if any, are illegal websites operating outside the regulatory authority of PAGCOR. However, should any of our licensed operators be caught offering their fights abroad, they shall be meted with the applicable penalties as provided in our regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>E-sabong grew in popularity after&nbsp;<strong>cockpits were closed to spectators&nbsp;<\/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&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-philippines-approves-two-more-e-sabong-operators\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">two more applications<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Catholic Church against e-sabong bill<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/catholic-church-against-e-sabong-bill\">Several Catholic church leaders<\/a><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>have expressed their<strong>\u00a0opposition to the country\u2019s e-sabong bill<\/strong>. Senator Grace Poe\u2019s Public Service Committee has scheduled a hearing this week to resolve the bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government is seeking to make up for lost revenue from its land-based casinos and online gaming companies, which have been hit hard by countermeasures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However,&nbsp;<strong>Romulo Valles<\/strong>, Archbishop of Davao and former chairman of the Philippine Conference of Catholic Bishops (CBCP), said that online gambling, in this case, cockfighting, \u201cis still gambling.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>he said<strong>&nbsp;the enactment of the bill will promote an attitude that it is okay to use much-needed money for gambling<\/strong>. He said such attempts to legalise e-sabong may cause Filipino families to fall apart.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Manila Times reported that Bishop Patrick Daniel Parcon of Talibon, CBCP Central and Eastern Visayas regional representative and former CBCP Secretary-General Antonietto Cabahug said: \u201cpoverty should be solved with economic means, not gambling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PAGCOR has warned that e-sabong platforms are not allowed to accept bets from outside The Philippines.<\/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":"PAGCOR has issued a stern warning to licensed e-sabong operators, prohibiting the acceptance of bets from outside the Philippines and mandating geo-blocking measures, with non-compliance incurring penalties. Concurrently, a legislative hearing is scheduled to address the e-sabong bill, facing significant opposition from Catholic Church leaders concerned about the social impact of expanded online gambling.","focusai_entities":"PAGCOR, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, Senator Grace Poe, Public Service Committee, Romulo Valles, Archbishop of Davao, Philippine Conference of Catholic Bishops, CBCP, Bishop Patrick Daniel Parcon of Talibon, Antonietto Cabahug, The Manila Times","focusai_location":"The Philippines, Davao, Talibon","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.9), product_ux (0.75), tech_data (0.85), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR Enforcement Impact?","query":"What are the projected GGR and NGR impacts on licensed e-sabong operators following PAGCOR's strict enforcement of geo-blocking and overseas betting prohibitions?"},{"label":"E-sabong Bill Outlook?","query":"Given the Catholic Church's opposition, what is the revised legislative timeline and the probability of the e-sabong bill passing through Senator Grace Poe\u2019s Public Service Committee?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,16333],"tags":[24019,23911,405],"class_list":["post-24617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-e-sabong","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-pagcor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617","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=24617"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24635,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617\/revisions\/24635"}],"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=24617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}