{"id":777029835,"date":"2025-08-04T08:32:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T11:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777029835"},"modified":"2026-04-21T20:25:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T23:25:46","slug":"philippine-government-insists-it-wont-rush-to-decision-on-online-gambling-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-government-insists-it-wont-rush-to-decision-on-online-gambling-restrictions","title":{"rendered":"Philippine government insists it won’t rush to decision on online gambling restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. believes the issue must be studied carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- The Philippine government has stressed that it will not rush into a decision regarding a possible ban on online gambling. Presidential spokesperson Claire Castro has said that president Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. believes the issue must be studied carefully to understand the full implications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe must first identify where the problem lies, whether in the licenses, the apps, or the unlicensed sites,\u201d Castro said during a press briefing. She stressed that revenues generated by licensed operators had contributed to public aid programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some lawmakers voiced disappointment after President Marcos failed to address the matter during his recent State of the Nation Address<\/a>. However, Senate President Francis Escudero defended the omission, noting that public hearings are expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The the country\u2019s online game industry generated over US$2bn in gross gaming revenue in the first half of 2025, according to regulator PAGCOR. Some steps have already been taken to address concerns about negative impacts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGCOR has ordered the removal of all out-of-home gambling advertisements and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ad Standards Council to pre-screen all gambling-related promotions. Meanwhile, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has shut down more than 7,000 unauthorised gaming sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Philippine Senate to start committee hearings on online gambling<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. believes the issue must be studied carefully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":680,"featured_media":777031340,"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 government is exercising caution regarding a potential online gambling ban, emphasizing the need for thorough study to understand full implications, including revenue contributions from licensed operators. While some lawmakers expressed disappointment over the President's omission of the topic in his recent address, public hearings are anticipated. Regulatory bodies like PAGCOR and DICT have already implemented measures to address concerns, such as advertising restrictions and the shutdown of unauthorized sites, with the industry generating over US$2bn in GGR in H1 2025.","focusai_entities":"Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., Claire Castro, Francis Escudero, PAGCOR, Ad Standards Council, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.8), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Economic Impact Analysis","query":"What specific economic models and stakeholder consultations will the Philippine government employ to quantify the full fiscal impact of a potential online gambling ban, considering both GGR contributions and potential illicit market growth?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Gaps","query":"How does PAGCOR intend to refine its B2B\/B2C licensing and governance frameworks to address the identified 'problem areas' (licenses, apps, unlicensed sites) and enhance regulatory compliance, irrespective of a full ban?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,158,16333],"tags":[225,4138,24804],"class_list":["post-777029835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-legislation","tag-online-gambling","tag-the-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777029835","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\/680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777029835"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777029835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777029865,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777029835\/revisions\/777029865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777031340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777029835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777029835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777029835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}