{"id":777028816,"date":"2025-07-09T08:04:37","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T11:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777028816"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:10:31","slug":"pagcor-president-rejects-proposals-for-a-complete-prohibition-of-online-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-president-rejects-proposals-for-a-complete-prohibition-of-online-gambling","title":{"rendered":"PAGCOR president opposes call for ban on online gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Tengco warned that a ban could result in the country losing billions in revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chairman and CEO <strong>Alejandro Tengco<\/strong> has said he does not agree with a call to ban online gambling in the country. In an interview with DZMM, Tengco warned that a ban could result in the country losing hundreds of billions in revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe current government is <strong>earning PHP100bn (US$1.8bn)<\/strong> directly and indirectly,\u201d he said, noting that PHP50bn is generated annually in licence fees alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the agency does welcome &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-to-support-stricter-online-gambling-regulations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stricter regulation.\u201d<\/a> Tengco said the biggest issue the industry was facing was not licensed operators but illegal offshore operators: \u201cRight now, we can only capture about 45 per cent to 50 per cent of the entire online gaming sphere or the industry because there are so many illegal operators that are still operating,\u201d he said: \u201cThe proliferation of online illegal operators unfortunately, does not come from our country but from other countries that target Filipino customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senate president Juan Miguel Zubiri\u2019s Anti-Online Gambling Act of 2025 seeks to ban online gambling in all forms, including mobile applications and websites. Senator\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-senator-calls-for-stricter-regulations-on-online-gambling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sherwin Gatchalian<\/a>\u00a0has filed a separate bill proposing tighter restrictions without a full ban. Senator\u00a0<strong>Alan Peter Cayetano<\/strong>\u00a0is pushing for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-lawmakers-work-on-measure-to-limit-the-use-of-e-wallets-in-online-gambling-platforms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">e-wallet providers<\/a>\u00a0to prevent their platforms from facilitating transactions linked to online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is reportedly <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-president-open-to-considering-proposed-new-online-gambling-legislation\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-president-open-to-considering-proposed-new-online-gambling-legislation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">open to proposals for tighter regulations<\/a> and taxation of digital gaming. The Department of Finance (DOF) is currently exploring measures to impose new\u00a0<strong>taxes on online gaming platforms<\/strong>. One bill proposes a 10 per cent tax on operators to fund addiction treatment and recovery programs.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/04\/2023-12-18T000000Z_749513732_MT1KYODO000U58A8M_RTRMADP_3_PHILIPPINE-PRESIDENT-MARCOS-1024x682-c-default.webp-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href='https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-president-open-to-considering-proposed-new-online-gambling-legislation'>Philippine president open to new online gambling regulations<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tengco warned that a ban could result in the country losing billions in revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":777024149,"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 Chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco opposes a full ban on online gambling in the Philippines, citing a potential loss of PHP100bn (US$1.8bn) in annual government revenue, including PHP50bn from license fees. While advocating for stricter regulation, Tengco highlights the primary challenge as the proliferation of illegal offshore operators, which PAGCOR struggles to control. This stance comes amidst legislative proposals from various senators for either a complete ban or tighter restrictions, with President Marcos Jr. and the Department of Finance also exploring new taxation measures for the sector.","focusai_entities":"Alejandro Tengco, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Juan Miguel Zubiri, Sherwin Gatchalian, Alan Peter Cayetano, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., Department of Finance (DOF)","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Illegal Operator Enforcement?","query":"What specific enforcement mechanisms are being considered to address the proliferation of illegal offshore operators, given PAGCOR's current capture rate of 45-50% of the online gaming sphere?"},{"label":"Tax Impact on NGR?","query":"How would the proposed 10% tax on operators to fund addiction treatment programs impact the Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) and profitability margins of licensed entities within the Philippine iGaming market?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[24628,154,158,16333],"tags":[225,405,337],"class_list":["post-777028816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-legislation","tag-pagcor","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777028816","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\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777028816"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777028816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777028829,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777028816\/revisions\/777028829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777024149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777028816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777028816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777028816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}