PAGCOR’s chairman and CEO said the government could lose up to PHP40bn (US$685.5m) in tax revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Philippines.- Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco has expressed his opposition to a proposed bill to ban all forms of online gambling in the country.\u00a0During a Senate committee hearing, he said a ban would unfairly impact legal businesses that contribute taxes and revenue to the government and could result in a loss of up to PHP40bn (US$685.5m) in tax revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said legalising currently illegal gaming sites could generate between PHP200bn to PHP250bn in additional revenues. However, Tengo said he would not oppose the move if a ban on offshore gaming operators is approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
See also:<\/strong> PAGCOR reports net income of US$112.34m for H1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In June, senator Joel Villanueva<\/strong> called for a ban on offshore gambling operators arguing there was mounting evidence linking operators to \u201ccrimes such as torture, kidnapping, murder, and human trafficking.\u201d He criticised the PAGCOR for failing to ensure operators conduct their business legally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert Ace Barbers<\/a>, chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, and senators\u00a0Imee Marcos<\/a>,\u00a0Risa Hontiveros<\/a>\u00a0and Sherwin Gatchalian have made similar calls. The latter has 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\n\n\n Arsenio Balisacan<\/strong>, the Philippines\u2019 socioeconomic planning secretary, said the government has not yet made a decision on calls to ban offshore gambling operators but exploring possible steps to soften the economic impact of any ban. Labour secretary\u00a0Bienvenido Laguesma<\/strong>\u00a0said analysis is being carried out on the possible impact on unemployment. In June, he warned that\u00a0more than 22,000 workers\u00a0<\/strong>could face unemployment if the government bans offshore gaming operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PAGCOR’s chairman and CEO said the government could lose up to PHP40bn (US$685.5m) in tax revenues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"PAGCOR's CEO opposes a proposed bill to ban all online gambling in the Philippines, citing a potential PHP40bn (US$685.5m) tax revenue loss and suggesting legalization of illegal sites could generate significant new revenue. The Philippine government is evaluating the economic and employment impacts of such a ban, which is supported by several senators due to links between offshore operators and criminal activities.","focusai_entities":"PAGCOR, Alejandro Tengco, Joel Villanueva, Robert Ace Barbers, Imee Marcos, Risa Hontiveros, Sherwin Gatchalian, Rodrigo Duterte, Arsenio Balisacan, Bienvenido Laguesma","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Senate Bill 2689 Timeline?","query":"What is the projected timeline for the Senate Bill 2689's legislative process and potential enactment, considering the stated economic and social impacts?"},{"label":"PAGCOR Legalization Framework?","query":"How would PAGCOR's proposed legalization of currently illegal gaming sites be structured to ensure robust regulatory compliance, enhanced governance frameworks, and optimized revenue capture for the state?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,16333],"tags":[4138,405],"class_list":["post-777017334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-online-gambling","tag-pagcor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777017334","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=777017334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777017334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777017343,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777017334\/revisions\/777017343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777017334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777017334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777017334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}