{"id":777001752,"date":"2023-01-25T12:19:56","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T15:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777001752"},"modified":"2026-04-23T01:15:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:15:46","slug":"philippine-senator-insists-banning-pogos-wont-affect-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-senator-insists-banning-pogos-wont-affect-economy","title":{"rendered":"Philippine senator insists banning POGOs won’t affect economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has said the country doesn’t need POGOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Senator Sherwin Gatchalian <\/strong>has again called for Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) to be banned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senator says he is working on a detailed report on the outlook of online gaming in The Philippines and that a ban on POGOs won’t affect the economy<\/strong>. Gatchalian said that POGOs contribute PHP35bn annually in income taxes but that in the third quarter of 2022, the collection was only PHP7.2bn, projected to reach about PHP8.5bn in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senator said there may be some job shifts and impacts on the real estate sector<\/strong> but that these would be resolved within a few years, especially with the expected boom in the business process outsourcing industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, Gatchalian said the impact of a ban could be mitigated by attracting BPO companies<\/a>, which could take up office space left by gaming operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criticism of POGO auditor hired by PAGCOR<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During a committee hearing on Monday, Gatchalian criticised the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation\u2019s (PAGCOR)<\/a> choice of auditor to probe the earnings of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs)<\/strong>. He said Global ComRCI had inconsistencies in its documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gatchalian said his research team has found that Global ComRCI hired an unregistered bank to prove it had the required PHP1.3bn (US$25m) in funds to meet PAGCOR\u2019s tender requirements. It also found that Global ComRCI was not registered in Makati City despite having a business address in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the latest session held yesterday, PAGCOR assured the public of a speedy review of the third-party auditor<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also said there had been no reported criminal activities or incidents of kidnapping of offshore licenced industry workers for more than three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said this was the result of an inter-agency collaboration meeting held last September<\/a>, which brought together PAGCOR, the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Interior and local government departments to combat illegal gambling, including offshore gambling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has said the country doesn’t need POGOs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Senator Sherwin Gatchalian advocates for a ban on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), citing their non-essential economic contribution and low tax collection. He also criticized PAGCOR's chosen auditor, Global ComRCI, for alleged inconsistencies in its registration and financial documentation. PAGCOR has committed to reviewing the auditor and highlighted a reduction in POGO-related criminal incidents.","focusai_entities":"Sherwin Gatchalian, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Global ComRCI, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and local government departments","focusai_location":"Philippines, Makati City","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Ban Economic Impact","query":"What is the projected net economic impact of a comprehensive POGO ban on the Philippine economy, specifically detailing the long-term effects on the real estate sector and the potential for BPO industry expansion to offset job displacement?"},{"label":"PAGCOR Auditor Governance","query":"What specific deficiencies in PAGCOR's governance frameworks and due diligence processes allowed for the appointment of an auditor with alleged registration and financial inconsistencies, and what immediate corrective measures are being implemented?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,158,16333],"tags":[23911,4138,405,15789],"class_list":["post-777001752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-online-gambling","tag-pagcor","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001752","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=777001752"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777001778,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001752\/revisions\/777001778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777001752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777001752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777001752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}