Leechiu Property Consultants CEO David Leechiu has warned that a ban could hurt the Philippine economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Philippines.- Leechiu Property Consultants CEO David Leechiu has warned that a proposal to ban online gaming in the Philippines<\/a>, including POGOs and PIGOs (offshore and domestic betting and wagering), could seriously hurt the economy. He told The Inquirer a ban could cost the Philippines PHP200bn (US$3.39m) a year in office and residential rentals, income tax, electricity bills, wages and regulatory revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leechiu says the government would also lose an estimated PHP5.8bn in government taxes, while the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) would lose PHP5.25bn in revenue. In addition, 347,000 workers could lose their jobs if the remaining POGOs close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The country has already been affected by\u00a0the ban on e-sabong operations<\/a>, which financial institutions says has cost the Philippines an estimated PHP5bn in lost potential revenue for the year. In August, The Manila Standard reported that almost\u00a0<\/strong>3.2 million Filipino workers<\/a>\u00a0had been affected by the prohibition of e-sabong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The proposal to ban POGOs comes after reports of kidnappings<\/strong>. The PAGCOR carried out a raid together with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to\u00a0rescue 40 foreign nationals\u00a0<\/strong>who were working at an illegal offshore gaming company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAGCOR and DILG ordered the closure of the illegal establishment in Angeles City. The government then announced that starting from October 1, it will deport 281 Chinese citizens who were illegally employed by online gambling operators.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leechiu Property Consultants CEO David Leechiu has warned that a ban could hurt the Philippine economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"A proposed ban on online gaming, encompassing both offshore (POGOs) and domestic (PIGOs) operations in the Philippines, could severely impact the national economy. Industry analysis suggests potential annual losses of PHP200bn in rentals, taxes, and wages, alongside significant job displacement and revenue shortfalls for PAGCOR. This initiative follows reports of illegal activities and recent enforcement actions against illicit operators.","focusai_entities":"Leechiu Property Consultants, David Leechiu, The Inquirer, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), The Manila Standard, Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)","focusai_location":"Philippines, Angeles City","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Economic Impact Assessment","query":"What specific mitigation strategies are being considered by the Philippine government to offset the projected PHP200bn annual economic loss and 347,000 job displacements if the POGO\/PIGO ban proceeds?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution","query":"How would a comprehensive ban on POGOs and PIGOs impact PAGCOR's long-term revenue generation capabilities and its role in the broader Philippine gaming regulatory framework?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,158,16333],"tags":[15789],"class_list":["post-33798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33798","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=33798"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33807,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33798\/revisions\/33807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}