{"id":777022533,"date":"2025-02-03T10:03:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T13:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777022533"},"modified":"2026-04-22T02:11:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:11:36","slug":"pagcor-ceo-denies-possible-return-of-offshore-gaming-operators-in-the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-ceo-denies-possible-return-of-offshore-gaming-operators-in-the-philippines","title":{"rendered":"PAGCOR CEO denies possible return of offshore gaming operators in the Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alejandro Tengco said there are no plans to allow offshore gaming operators “now or in the foreseeable future.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.-\u00a0The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR)\u00a0<\/strong>has denied claims made in letters and text messages being circulated about a possible return of offshore gaming operations in the Philippines. Alejandro Tengco, PAGCOR’s chairman and CEO, said the scammers were seeking to trick would-be investors into paying for up to PHP50m, supposedly for attorney\u2019s fees, consultation and assessment to get a licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: “It has come to our attention that some people are enticing potential investors into paying huge amounts for supposed limited slots of offshore gaming operator licenses, and saying offshore gaming operators will be supposedly operating directly under PAGCOR. There is absolutely no truth to this<\/strong>.\u00a0Offshore gaming operators remain banned, and there are no plans to bring them back, now or in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Should you get any text message or letter informing you that you can avail of a POGO slot, please report them immediately to PAGCOR or the police and other law enforcement agencies because these are scammers who need to be stopped.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: \u201cWe reiterate: offshore gaming operators will not reopen during the term of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and PAGCOR is not entertaining, and will not entertain any applications.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President\u00a0Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. <\/strong>issued\u00a0Executive Order (EO) 74<\/strong> banning offshore gaming<\/a> in November. The move came after high-profile cases of human trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGCOR reports record revenue for 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

PAGCOR posted record revenue of PHP112bn (US$1.92bn) for 2024, up 41 per cent\u00a0in year-on-year terms<\/a>. The regulator posted\u00a0net operating income<\/strong>\u00a0of PHP84.97bn (US$1.46bn), up 51 per cent year-on-year. Net income after contributions to nation-building reached PHP16.77bn (US$287m), up 146 per cent year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The e-games and e-bingo sectors<\/strong> became the biggest contributors with PHP48.79bn (US$836m) or 50.3 per cent of all gaming revenues. Casinos <\/strong>contributed PHP33.07bn (US$567m) while commercial casinos licensed by PAGCOR<\/strong> brought in PHP12.67bn (US$217m). Offshore gaming operators which were banned in December<\/a>, contributed PHP2.99bn (US$51m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contributions to nation-building <\/strong>increased by 37.61 per cent, reaching PHP68.20bn (US$1.17bn). This includes PHP46.32bn (US$793m) remitted to the National Treasury, PHP4.87bn (US$83m) in franchise taxes and PHP1.09bn (US$19m) in corporate income taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other allocations included PHP2.31bn (US$40m) for the Philippine Sports Commission, PHP91.88m in incentives for athletes and coaches participating in international competitions, and PHP12.37bn (US$212m) for socio-civic programs under the Office of the President. Additional funds were distributed to the host cities of Casino Filipino branches (PHP60m), the Board of Claims under the Department of Justice (PHP80m), and the Renewable Energy Trust Fund (PHP1m).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alejandro Tengco said there are no plans to allow offshore gaming operators “now or in the foreseeable future.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777003434,"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 Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has unequivocally denied any plans to reinstate offshore gaming operators (POGOs), warning against scammers offering fraudulent licenses. Concurrently, PAGCOR reported record revenue of PHP112bn for 2024, a 41% year-on-year increase, primarily driven by the e-games and e-bingo sectors.","focusai_entities":"Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, PAGCOR, Alejandro Tengco, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., National Treasury, Philippine Sports Commission, Department of Justice, Office of the President, Board of Claims","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.85), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR Revenue Growth Drivers?","query":"What specific factors contributed to the 41% year-on-year revenue growth for PAGCOR in 2024, particularly within the e-games and e-bingo sectors?"},{"label":"Impact of POGO Ban?","query":"How has the definitive ban on offshore gaming operators (POGOs) impacted the overall gaming ecosystem and revenue diversification strategy for PAGCOR and the Philippine economy?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,158,16333],"tags":[23911,405],"class_list":["post-777022533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-pagcor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022533","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=777022533"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777022552,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022533\/revisions\/777022552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777003434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777022533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777022533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777022533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}