Cambodia<\/a><\/strong><\/em> in banning online gambling in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n“The ban in Cambodia, from available information, is that because the Chinese government objected to it. Yet we are here, we are acting like a province of China supposedly. So, if it\u2019s banned in China, then it should also be banned here”, Drilon claimed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m disappointed, for the record, with the statement of PAGCOR, saying that we are in favour of POGOs continuing in our shores because of the income we earn. It’s such a short-term, short-ranged statement,” he continued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The social problems that POGOs have brought to our country is not worth the regulation fees that you earn for PAGCOR. Let me tell you that right in your face. For PHP8 billion (\u20ac141 million) as fees that you get, you’re saying that they should be here,” Drilon added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The situation surrounding POGOs in the Philippines has garnered international attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
US Senator Richard Gordon claimed that Philippine President Duterte was being soft on China, and this was triggering the problems with the POGO industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Philippine Presidential Spokesperson, Salvador Panelo, countered: \u201cThe President is never soft on anything that relates to the national interest. You must remember that the POGOs are giving us PHP17 billion (\u20ac300 million) in the last three years. Prior to this, we\u2019re only receiving about PHP57 million (\u20ac1 million) on online gambling. In other words, it\u2019s a huge source of income for this government, where it can be used for all kinds of projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Panelo said there was a need to \u201creview, evaluate, streamline, and improve\u201d the POGO industry, not ban it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Debate heats up over whether the Philippines should continue to license offshore gambling operators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4189,"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 is currently engaged in a significant debate regarding the future of its Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs). Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon advocates for a ban, citing social problems and national security concerns, while criticizing PAGCOR's revenue-centric stance. Conversely, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo defends POGOs as a substantial revenue source for the government, proposing industry review and improvement over an outright prohibition.","focusai_entities":"Franklin Drilon, PAGCOR, Richard Gordon, Duterte, Salvador Panelo, Chinese government","focusai_location":"Philippines, Cambodia, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.95), affiliate_publisher (0.7), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Fiscal Impact","query":"What is the projected fiscal impact on the Philippine government's budget and PAGCOR's revenue if POGOs are banned, considering both direct fees and indirect economic contributions?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution","query":"How might the Philippine government's governance framework for iGaming evolve if POGOs are not banned, specifically regarding enhanced regulatory compliance, social safeguards, and B2B\/B2C licensing structures?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,154,16333],"tags":[225,128,1205],"class_list":["post-4187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-legislation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-legislation","tag-philippines","tag-pogo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4187"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777010518,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions\/777010518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}