{"id":7915,"date":"2020-07-07T21:04:05","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T21:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=7915"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:51:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:51:49","slug":"aspap-separate-registered-and-illegal-pogos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/aspap-separate-registered-and-illegal-pogos","title":{"rendered":"ASPAP: separate registered and illegal POGOs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ASPAP has called on the government to distinguish more carefully between registered and illegal operators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Philippines.- Margarita Gutierrez, spokesperson for the Accredited Service Providers Association of <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pagcor.ph\/index.php\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pagcor<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (ASPAP) has asked local politicians to carefully distinguish between correctly registered Philippine online gaming operators (POGOs) and clandestine operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She fears legislators have created a negative public opinion towards gaming firms through statements made <strong><em><a aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-no-tolerance-on-pogo-tax-evasion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">demanding POGOs to pay<\/a><\/em><\/strong> long standing tax debts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the first quarter of 2020, duly accredited POGOs paid P1.8 billion (US$36.3 million) in regulatory fees, the Philippine Information Agency reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ASPAP says the <strong><em><a aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-warns-pogos-leaving-philippines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">departure of some of these firms<\/a><\/em><\/strong> from the local market would leave a hole in the domestic economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The association also says that POGOs spent P25 billion (US$504.4 million) in leaseholds and rentals, for which they also pay taxes, and employ 31,556 Filipinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Bureau of Internal Revenue has estimated it should be <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-philippines-expects-p20-billion-from-pogos\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">receiving about P20 billion<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (USD399million) per year from POGOs, while companies paid little over P6 billion in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ASPAP has called on the government to distinguish more carefully between registered and illegal operators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"ASPAP urges the Philippine government to differentiate between legitimate, registered Philippine Online Gaming Operators (POGOs) and illegal entities, asserting that negative public sentiment stemming from tax debt accusations risks the departure of compliant firms. The association highlights the significant economic contributions of accredited POGOs, including substantial regulatory fees, leasehold expenditures, and local employment, contrasting these with the Bureau of Internal Revenue's tax revenue estimates.","focusai_entities":"ASPAP (Accredited Service Providers Association of Pagcor), Margarita Gutierrez, Pagcor, Philippine Information Agency, Bureau of Internal Revenue, POGOs (Philippine Online Gaming Operators)","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Gov't Response to ASPAP?","query":"What specific policy adjustments or clarifications does the Philippine government intend to implement to address ASPAP's call for differentiation between registered and illegal POGOs, and to reconcile the reported tax discrepancies?"},{"label":"Economic Impact Analysis?","query":"Beyond the stated regulatory fees and leasehold expenditures, what is the comprehensive economic impact assessment of a potential mass exodus of legitimate POGOs on the Philippine economy, including indirect employment and ancillary services?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,158,16333],"tags":[128,15789],"class_list":["post-7915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-philippines","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7915","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7915"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7921,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7915\/revisions\/7921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}