Joey Salceda defended the permanence of offshore gaming operators in the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Philippines.- The chairperson of the House Ways and Means Committee and Albay representative, Joey Salceda<\/strong> has defended the presence of offshore gambling operators in the Philippines amid calls for a ban. He said the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) <\/strong>generated PHP5.1bn (US$87.12bn) in revenue from offshore gambling operators in 2023, up 71 per cent year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Salceda stated that PAGCOR had transformed\u00a0such operators, formerly known as POGOs, into a controlled sector of the economy. He attributed advancements to the leadership of chairman Alejandro H. Tengco<\/strong> and president and CEO Amy Eisma<\/strong>, saying they modernised the corporation’s policies and practices. Salceda said revised licensing regulations had increased revenue and reduced the number of licensees, allowing PAGCOR to be more selective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAGCOR’s data shows that revenue from gaming licensees was PHP5.1bn from 87 licensees in 2023, compared to PHP2.99bn from 158 licensees in 2022. This amount is second only to 2019, the first full year of legalised offshore gambling licensees’ (OGL) operations, when PAGCOR collected PHP7.96bn from 298 licensees,<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to The Philippines News Agency, Salceda said the phase-out of less desirable licensees, rather than the entire industry, is a positive development. He said the number of Chinese workers employed by POGOs has decreased significantly, with only 8,500 direct hires compared to a peak of 200,000. He said around 25,000 Filipinos are among the 100,000 total direct or indirect hires and that Vietnamese hires now outnumbering Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Salceda praised PAGCOR for its role in stopping illegal offshore gaming operations in Bamban, Tarlac<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Senators\u00a0Robert Ace Barbers<\/a>, Rufus Rodriguez<\/strong>, Imee Marcos<\/a>,\u00a0Risa Hontiveros<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Sherwin Gatchalian <\/strong>are pushing for a total ban of offshore gaming operators arguing they pose \u201ca serious threat to national security.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joey Salceda defended the permanence of offshore gaming operators in the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":22068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Joey Salceda, chairperson of the House Ways and Means Committee, defended the continued presence of offshore gaming operators (OGLs) in the Philippines, citing PAGCOR's PHP5.1bn revenue in 2023, a 71% year-on-year increase. He highlighted improved regulatory control, reduced licensee numbers, and a shift in workforce demographics, while acknowledging calls for a total ban by several senators due to national security concerns.","focusai_entities":"Joey Salceda, House Ways and Means Committee, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Alejandro H. Tengco, Amy Eisma, The Philippines News Agency, Robert Ace Barbers, Rufus Rodriguez, Imee Marcos, Risa Hontiveros, Sherwin Gatchalian","focusai_location":"Philippines, Albay, Bamban, Tarlac","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.98), compliance_legal (0.85), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.92), supplier_vendor (0.88), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact of OGL Ban?","query":"What would be the projected economic impact on the Philippine national budget and employment figures if a total ban on offshore gaming operators were implemented, considering PAGCOR's stated revenue contributions and the current workforce demographics?"},{"label":"PAGCOR's Regulatory Evolution?","query":"How have PAGCOR's revised licensing regulations specifically enhanced governance frameworks and reduced illicit operations within the offshore gaming sector, beyond the reported revenue increase and reduction in licensee numbers?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16333],"tags":[4138,405,15789],"class_list":["post-777016354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-online-gambling","tag-pagcor","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016354","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=777016354"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777016372,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016354\/revisions\/777016372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777016354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777016354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777016354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}