{"id":777016324,"date":"2024-06-11T10:40:15","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T13:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777016324"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:16:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:16:33","slug":"another-lawmaker-joins-call-for-ban-on-offshore-gaming-companies-in-the-philipines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/another-lawmaker-joins-call-for-ban-on-offshore-gaming-companies-in-the-philipines","title":{"rendered":"Another lawmaker joins call for ban on offshore gaming companies in the Philipines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Surigao del Norte 2nd District representative Robert Ace Barbers has added his voice to the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Surigao del Norte 2nd district representative Robert Ace Barbers<\/strong>, chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, <\/strong>has added his voice to calls for a ban on offshore gambling operators in the Philippines. He said the operators, formerly known as POGOs, pose “a serious threat to national security.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His call echoes that of senators Imee Marcos<\/a>, Risa Hontiveros<\/a> and Sherwin Gatchalian<\/strong>. Barbers noted that he had questioned the activities of the offshore gambling operators in 2017 and said that the situation has since worsened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Philippines News Agency, Barbers<\/strong> questioned the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR)’s move to rename POGOs saying: “No change of name can ever erase its legacy of crimes. POGO by any other name stinks just the same.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbers’ call was backed by Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District representative Rufus Rodriguez<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Alejandro H. Tengco<\/strong>, chairman and CEO of PAGCOR, has argued that the real threat to national security comes from alien hacking and scam syndicates (AHaSS) not genuine gaming operators. Tengco said\u00a0internet gaming licensees<\/a>\u00a0have contributed over PHP5bn to PAGCOR\u2019s gross revenue in 2023, providing financial support to the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cTo us, the real threat are the alien hacking and scam syndicates who operate underground, and they are the ones that our law enforcement agencies are trying to locate and dismantle. And we are cooperating fully with the authorities in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May,\u00a0Gatchalian<\/strong> introduced\u00a0Senate Bill 2689<\/strong> seeking to\u00a0prohibit the operations of offshore gaming companies<\/a>. The bill aims to repeal Republic Act 11590, which was enacted on September 22, 2021, by former president Rodrigo Duterte.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Surigao del Norte 2nd District representative Robert Ace Barbers has added his voice to the call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21794,"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 legislators, led by Representative Robert Ace Barbers, are intensifying calls for a comprehensive ban on offshore gambling operators (formerly POGOs, now IGLs), citing critical national security threats and a persistent legacy of criminal activities. This legislative initiative, notably Senate Bill 2689, seeks to repeal Republic Act 11590, which currently governs these operations. Conversely, PAGCOR's Chairman and CEO, Alejandro H. Tengco, argues that legitimate IGLs are significant contributors to government gross revenue and that the actual security threat emanates from illicit alien hacking and scam syndicates, not regulated gaming entities.","focusai_entities":"Robert Ace Barbers, Imee Marcos, Risa Hontiveros, Sherwin Gatchalian, Rufus Rodriguez, Alejandro H. Tengco, PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation), Philippine News Agency, Rodrigo Duterte","focusai_location":"Philippines, Surigao del Norte, Cagayan de Oro City","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR's Revenue Impact?","query":"How does PAGCOR's current GGR contribution from Internet Gaming Licensees (IGLs) compare to previous POGO contributions, and what is their projected financial impact if Senate Bill 2689 is enacted?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Implications?","query":"What specific governance frameworks and B2B\/B2C licensing structures would be affected by the repeal of Republic Act 11590, and what are the compliance implications for existing licensees?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,16333],"tags":[15789],"class_list":["post-777016324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016324","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=777016324"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777016337,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016324\/revisions\/777016337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777016324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777016324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777016324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}