{"id":33527,"date":"2022-09-15T05:31:47","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T08:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=33527"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:51:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:51:35","slug":"the-philippines-finance-secretary-wants-rids-of-pogos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-philippines-finance-secretary-wants-rids-of-pogos","title":{"rendered":"The Philippines finance secretary wants rids of POGOs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Benjamin Diokn, The Philippines&#8217; finance secretary, has said the country can do without the POGO industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- <strong>Benjamin Diokno<\/strong>, secretary of finance in The Philippines, has suggested that the country should abolish <strong>Philippine offshore gaming operators<\/strong> (POGOs). Speaking at a briefing by the Senate Development Budget Coordinating Committee on the 2023 state spending plan, he told senators that he saw the industry as a risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to GMA network, he said: &#8220;If you ask my personal opinion on this, let\u2019s discontinue the POGO because of the social cost. It also has a reputational risk because people will ask, \u2018Why are they going to the Philippines? They were discontinued in China and Cambodia, why are they going to the Philippines?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Diokno said that with China and Cambodia having clamped down on online gaming operations, people may deem the Philippines to be too \u201cloose\u201d or \u201cnot strict\u201d with its rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In July,&nbsp;<strong>Victor Padilla<\/strong>, senior manager of PAGCOR\u2019s policy and offshore gaming licensing division, revealed that there are currently&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/only-26-pogos-currently-operate-in-the-philippines\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">only 26 Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs)<\/a><strong>.<\/strong>&nbsp;That compares to 63 before the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Analysts have partly attributed the exodus of POGOs to the\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-philippines-online-gaming-tax-bill-advances\" target=\"_blank\">5 per cent franchise tax on turnover<\/a>\u00a0that the government introduced in a bid to make up budget shortfalls caused by the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Benjamin Diokn, The Philippines&#8217; finance secretary, has said the country can do without the POGO industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17179,"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 Philippines' Finance Secretary, Benjamin Diokno, has advocated for the abolition of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), citing significant social and reputational risks. This stance, driven by concerns over the country's perceived regulatory leniency following crackdowns in China and Cambodia, comes as POGO numbers have already significantly declined due to factors like a 5% franchise tax. The move signals a potential major shift in the nation's iGaming policy.","focusai_entities":"Benjamin Diokno, Victor Padilla, PAGCOR, GMA network, Senate Development Budget Coordinating Committee","focusai_location":"Philippines, China, Cambodia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Economic Impact Assessment","query":"What is the projected economic impact, including job losses and government revenue shortfalls, if the POGO industry is fully abolished, and what compensatory measures are being considered?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution","query":"How would the Philippines' iGaming regulatory framework evolve post-POGO, particularly concerning B2B licensing, and what steps would be taken to address the perceived 'reputational risk' for other gaming verticals?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16333],"tags":[15789],"class_list":["post-33527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33527","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=33527"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33531,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33527\/revisions\/33531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}