{"id":777010733,"date":"2023-10-31T07:17:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T10:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777010733"},"modified":"2026-04-22T16:40:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:40:46","slug":"philippine-senate-majority-leader-urges-president-to-ban-pogos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-senate-majority-leader-urges-president-to-ban-pogos","title":{"rendered":"Philippine Senate majority leader urges president to ban POGOs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The call comes after the latest raids against human trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- Senate majority leader\u00a0<strong>Joel Villanueva\u00a0<\/strong>has urged president Marcos Jr to immediately prohibit\u00a0Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs). It comes after police\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-police-raid-gaming-operator\" target=\"_blank\">raided an unlicensed gaming establishment<\/a>\u00a0in Pasay City which has been linked to allegations of sex trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senators Villanueva and<strong>\u00a0Sherwin Gatchalian<\/strong>, who chairs the\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-senate-committee-recommends-shutdown-of-pogos\" target=\"_blank\">Senate Committee on Ways and Means<\/a>, have previously stated the presence of illegal POGO operations necessitates a more assertive stance from the <strong>Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR)<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They argued that the social costs associated with such activities far outweigh any economic benefits, underscoring the urgency for stricter regulation and potential bans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PAGCOR invalidated all POGO licences earlier this year and reissued them in an attempt to improve regulation. The effectiveness of these measures is now being questioned, as some operations continue to operate under different names. The committee report drafted by Gatchalian&#8217;s panel is currently awaiting further signatures from committee members before it can be addressed in the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>See also:&nbsp;<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-national-police-supports-pogo-expulsion\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Philippine National Police supports POGO expulsion<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The call comes after the latest raids against human trafficking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777008064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Philippine Senate leaders are urging President Marcos Jr. to immediately prohibit Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) following raids on unlicensed establishments linked to human trafficking. This call questions the efficacy of PAGCOR's recent re-licensing efforts, highlighting persistent illegal operations and significant social costs outweighing economic benefits.","focusai_entities":"Joel Villanueva, Marcos Jr., Sherwin Gatchalian, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Philippine National Police","focusai_location":"Philippines, Pasay City","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.85), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR's Next Steps?","query":"What specific enhancements to PAGCOR's regulatory and enforcement frameworks are being considered to address the identified gaps in POGO oversight and prevent the proliferation of illegal operations?"},{"label":"Economic Impact Analysis?","query":"What is the projected economic impact, including potential job losses and revenue shortfalls, of a comprehensive POGO ban on the Philippine economy, and what mitigation strategies are being explored?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,158,16333],"tags":[15789],"class_list":["post-777010733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777010733","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=777010733"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777010733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777041054,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777010733\/revisions\/777041054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777008064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777010733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777010733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777010733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}