{"id":34024,"date":"2022-10-03T09:31:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T12:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=34024"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:20:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:20:29","slug":"pogo-tax-payments-total-us75m-for-first-eight-months-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pogo-tax-payments-total-us75m-for-first-eight-months-of-the-year","title":{"rendered":"POGO tax payments total US$75m for first eight months of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Philippines&#8217; tax collections from POGOs have already exceeded 2021 revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has reported POGOs generated PHP4.438bn (US$75m) in tax revenues from January to August. Director Sixto Dy Jr noted that collections for the first eight months have already surpassed revenue for the whole year of 2021 (PHP3.91bn).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The BIR reported that there were 163 POGOs in the country as of June 2022, comprising 35 licensees and 130 service providers. However,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/only-26-pogos-currently-operate-in-the-philippines\" target=\"_blank\">only 26 of the licensees<\/a>\u00a0and 127 service providers were operational. As of June 15, 2022, the total number of employees in the POGO industry was 34,245, with 17,509 foreigners and 16,736 Filipinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The BIR said that POGOs had failed to reach pre-pandemic levels because several operators transferred their operations to other countries. It said the sector had also shrunk due 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>\u00a0and the Chinese government&#8217;s ongoing crackdown on online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) reported revenue of PHP1.912bn from January to August, including PHP1.333bn from offshore gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Philippine Senate Committee is\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-senate-committee-to-study-potential-impact-of-banning-pogos\" target=\"_blank\">debating the possibility of banning POGOs<\/a>. However, Leechiu Property Consultants CEO David Leechiu warned that the\u00a0proposal could seriously hurt the economy.\u00a0He 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<p>Leechiu says the government would also lose an estimated PHP5.8bn in government taxes, while 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<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">PAGCOR clarifies that illegal online gambling operators are not POGOs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A linguistic battle has broken out in the Philippines after the arrests of&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/china-to-cooperate-with-philippines-battle-against-pogo-crimes\" target=\"_blank\">Chinese citizens<\/a>&nbsp;allegedly involved in illegal online gaming. The regulator has clarified that&nbsp;<strong>POGOs<\/strong>&nbsp;are licensed operators and so the term should not be used to refer to illegal operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PAGCOR chairman and chief executive officer&nbsp;<strong>Alejandro Tengco<\/strong>&nbsp;said: \u201cThe agency emphasizes that any person, group or entity that operates online gambling without approval from PAGCOR should not be categorized as POGO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAny gaming entity that fails to pass the application process for an offshore gaming license cannot be labelled as POGO.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Philippines&#8217; tax collections from POGOs have already exceeded 2021 revenues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":13787,"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' POGO sector has surpassed 2021 tax revenues, generating PHP4.438bn by August, despite a reduction in operational entities attributed to a 5% franchise tax and China's crackdown. A proposed POGO ban is under Senate debate, with economic analysts warning of significant fiscal and employment repercussions, while PAGCOR has clarified the distinction between licensed POGOs and illegal online gambling operations.","focusai_entities":"Bureau of Internal Revenue, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, Leechiu Property Consultants, Philippine Senate Committee, Sixto Dy Jr, David Leechiu, Alejandro Tengco","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Ban Fiscal Impact","query":"What is the projected net fiscal impact of a POGO ban, considering both direct revenue losses from taxes and regulatory fees, and potential economic stimulus from alternative industries or foreign direct investment?"},{"label":"PAGCOR Enforcement Strategy","query":"How will PAGCOR's clarified distinction between licensed POGOs and illegal online gambling operations influence future enforcement strategies and international cooperation efforts against illicit gaming activities?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,158,16333],"tags":[15789],"class_list":["post-34024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34024","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=34024"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34038,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34024\/revisions\/34038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}