{"id":777013112,"date":"2024-02-13T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777013112"},"modified":"2026-04-22T13:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:03:12","slug":"philippine-house-panel-approves-pogos-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-house-panel-approves-pogos-ban","title":{"rendered":"Philippine House panel approves POGOs ban"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A panel of the House of Representatives has approved House Bill 5082 and House Resolution 1197.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Philippines.- The House of Representatives Committee on Games and Amusements has approved two measures,\u00a0<strong>House Bill 5082 and Resolution 1197<\/strong>, which seek to ban offshore gambling operators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Rufus Rodriguez<\/strong>, author of HR 1197 and representative of the 2nd district of Cagayan de Oro City, and Manila representative <strong>Bienvenido Abante Jr.<\/strong>, who filed HB 5082, thanked the committee, which is chaired by the congressman of the 6th district of Cavite\u00a0<strong>Antonio Ferrer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rodriguez claims that POGOs, despite contributing revenue to the country, are primarily used to carry out illegal activities such as money laundering, illegal immigration and employment, kidnapping and other crimes. He said that in the first six months of 2023, the Philippine National Police recorded\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-41000-arrested-for-illegal-gambling-in-h1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">4,039 victims in four POGO-related crimes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However,\u00a0Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR)\u00a0chairman and CEO\u00a0<strong>Alejandro H. Tengco<\/strong>\u00a0has conveyed the regulator\u2019s willingness to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-chairman-keen-to-keep-pogos-in-the-country\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">support the continuity of POGOs<\/a>. In January, Tengco underscored<strong>\u00a0the employment opportunities provided by the sector<\/strong>, employing close to 70,000 Filipinos, and the sector\u2019s role in the property sector, occupying 625,000 square meters of office space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A panel of the House of Representatives has approved House Bill 5082 and House Resolution 1197.<\/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":"The Philippine House of Representatives Committee on Games and Amusements has approved measures (HB 5082, HR 1197) to ban offshore gambling operators (POGOs), citing concerns over illegal activities like money laundering and kidnapping. This legislative move contrasts with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR)'s stance, whose CEO, Alejandro H. Tengco, supports POGO continuity due to their significant economic contributions in employment and real estate.","focusai_entities":"House of Representatives, House of Representatives Committee on Games and Amusements, Rufus Rodriguez, Bienvenido Abante Jr., Antonio Ferrer, Philippine National Police, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Alejandro H. Tengco","focusai_location":"Philippines, Cagayan de Oro City, Manila, Cavite","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Ban Impact","query":"What are the projected economic ramifications for the Philippines' GGR, employment, and property sector if the proposed POGO ban is fully enacted, considering PAGCOR's counter-arguments?"},{"label":"Regulatory Compliance Shift","query":"How would the Philippine regulatory framework and PAGCOR's operational mandate evolve to address the cessation of POGO licensing and the potential for continued illicit offshore gambling activities?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,158,16333],"tags":[23911,4138,15789],"class_list":["post-777013112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-online-gambling","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777013112","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=777013112"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777013112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777013147,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777013112\/revisions\/777013147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777013112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777013112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777013112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}