{"id":777006738,"date":"2023-06-29T08:51:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T11:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777006738"},"modified":"2026-04-22T20:32:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:32:22","slug":"philippine-finance-secretary-wants-pogo-ban-despite-potential-revenue-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-finance-secretary-wants-pogo-ban-despite-potential-revenue-loss","title":{"rendered":"Philippine finance secretary wants POGO ban despite potential revenue loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

POGOs generate PHP4.4bn (US$80.1m) in revenue for the Philippine government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Finance secretary Benjamin Diokno<\/strong> has expressed his desire to ban Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), despite potential implications for government revenue. Diokno highlighted concerns regarding reputational risks and social costs associated with the presence of POGOs. In a briefing, he stated: “Let\u2019s get rid of POGOs. We can get revenues from lots of other sources<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The national government has benefited financially from POGOs, with revenues amounting to PHP4.4bn (US$80.1m) in the first eight months of 2022, surpassing the PHP3.9bn collected in 2021. POGOs also played a significant role in the local real estate industry, occupying approximately 5 per cent of the country’s leasable office spaces in 2022, as reported by Colliers Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the industry, consisting mostly of Chinese operators due to a gambling ban in their home country, has faced scrutiny for its alleged involvement in money laundering and criminal activities. In March 2020, the Anti-Money Laundering Council raised concerns of possible links between POGO transactions and drug trafficking<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diokno said POGOs were a potential reason why the Philippines remained on the Financial Action Task Force’s “grey list”<\/a>. He also raised concerns about the social costs<\/strong>, citing criminality and illegal work permits. Earlier this month, senator Sherwin Gatchalian<\/strong> said POGOs were being used as a \u201clegal cover\u201d<\/a> by criminal syndicates to promote fake cryptocurrency investments and run illicit operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He accused PAGCOR of corruption and failure to effectively monitor the entities<\/strong> and called again for a complete ban on the sector<\/a>, which he believes has brought \u201cinternational shame\u201d to the Philippines. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

POGOs generate PHP4.4bn (US$80.1m) in revenue for the Philippine government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":7875,"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 Philippine Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno advocates for banning Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) despite their significant revenue contribution of PHP4.4bn (US$80.1m) to the government and their role in the local real estate sector. This push is driven by severe concerns over reputational risks, social costs including alleged money laundering, criminal activities, and the Philippines' presence on the FATF grey list. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian further accuses PAGCOR of corruption and calls for a complete ban, citing international shame.","focusai_entities":"Benjamin Diokno, PAGCOR, Anti-Money Laundering Council, Financial Action Task Force, Colliers Philippines, Sherwin Gatchalian","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Ban Economic Impact","query":"What is the projected net economic impact on the Philippine economy, beyond direct government revenue, if POGOs are completely banned, considering real estate, employment, and ancillary services?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Gaps","query":"How does PAGCOR plan to address the alleged corruption and monitoring failures highlighted by Senator Gatchalian, and what specific governance framework reforms are being considered to prevent future illicit operations?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,16333],"tags":[405,15789],"class_list":["post-777006738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pagcor","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777006738","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=777006738"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777006738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777006773,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777006738\/revisions\/777006773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777006738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777006738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777006738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}