{"id":777023889,"date":"2025-03-10T09:45:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T12:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777023889"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:00:10","slug":"senator-says-review-of-philippine-inland-online-gaming-should-use-same-criteria-as-for-pogos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/senator-says-review-of-philippine-inland-online-gaming-should-use-same-criteria-as-for-pogos","title":{"rendered":"Senator says review of Philippine inland online gaming should use same criteria as for POGOs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Senate president Francis G. Escudero wants to see data on tax payments and ownership structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Senate president\u00a0Francis G. Escudero<\/strong>\u00a0has said the government’s cost-benefit analysis of Philippine inland gaming operators (PIGOs)<\/strong> should use the same accounting the government used to asses offshore gaming operators before they were banned. He said he expects data on tax payments, ownership structure, government share and police reports on crimes committed by addicted gamblers.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Senate
Senate president Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero. Source: Facebook.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On Tuesday (March 6), Claire Castro<\/strong>, undersecretary of the presidential communications office, said president Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. <\/strong>could impose a ban on PIGOs<\/strong> if they are found to be causing issues similar to those that led to the shutdown of offshore gaming operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castro said the government was conducting studies to evaluate the effects of PIGOs and would make comparisons with the operations of offshore gaming operators. Castro said that \u201cfor now, the study shows that PIGOs have yet to cause or produce crimes\u201d and emphasised that while offshore gaming operators typically hire foreign workers, PIGOs employ mostly Filipinos, with 90 per cent of their workforce being local.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also highlighted the economic contributions of PIGO. She said that, unlike offshore gaming operators, PIGOs contribute positively to the Philippine economy through tax revenues and local marketing expenditures. However, Castro said: \u201cIf what happened to offshore gaming operators also happens to PIGOs, the President would not hesitate to impose a total ban as well on PIGOs, but of course it will be based on data.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n

See also:<\/span> Ban on offshore gaming key to Philippines\u2019 removal from FATF grey list, government says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate president Francis G. Escudero wants to see data on tax payments and ownership structure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Senate President Francis G. Escudero demands comprehensive data on Philippine Inland Gaming Operators (PIGOs), including tax payments, ownership, and crime statistics, for a cost-benefit analysis mirroring that used for banned offshore gaming operators. The government is evaluating PIGOs' economic contributions and potential issues, with President Marcos Jr. prepared to impose a ban if data reveals similar negative impacts to POGOs.","focusai_entities":"Francis G. Escudero, Claire Castro, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., Presidential Communications Office","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PIGO Regulatory Impact","query":"What specific data points and performance metrics will the Philippine government prioritize in its cost-benefit analysis of PIGOs, and how will these be weighted against economic contributions and social impacts?"},{"label":"PIGO Operational Risk","query":"How are current PIGO operators mitigating the regulatory and reputational risks associated with potential comparisons to the previously banned offshore gaming operators (POGOs)?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[24628,156,16333],"tags":[4138],"class_list":["post-777023889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-regulation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023889","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=777023889"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777023900,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023889\/revisions\/777023900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777023889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777023889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777023889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}