House seeks to prohibit POGOS

A House panel on Monday gave its nod to two bills seeking to prohibit and declare illegal the operation of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators in the country in light of crimes arising from their operations, such as kidnapping, extortion, and money laundering.

Members of the House Committee on Games and Amusements came up with the adoption of House Bill 5082 and House Resolution 1197 after citing the proliferation of illegal activities associated with the multi-billion online gambling industry.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, author of HR 1197, raised concern with POGO-related kidnapping cases, which stood at 15 as of September 2022.

Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group PMGen. Sydney Hernia, however, told the committee that there was a "significant decline" in kidnapping cases since 2023 following the rebranding of POGO to Internet Gaming Licensees or IGL.

In October last year, Alejandro Tengco, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation's chief executive officer and chairperson announced they would change the label of POGO to IGL due to negative connotations associated with the offshore gaming industry.

"In 2019, at its height when it had closed 300 licensees, and all these criminal activities happened through the years, we decided [to change its name] because there was too much negative linked to POGO. As we were cleansing the rules and regulations and also the licensees, we also changed the name," Tengco told lawmakers.

The rebranding drew flak, particularly from lawmakers, who suspect that the move was a veiled attempt to camouflage the illicit activities of POGOs in the wake of multiple reported violations by the firms.

According to Tengco, less than half of the remaining 75 POGOs in the country are Chinese-owned.

The prohibition of POGO operations, he said, would undoubtedly hurt the financial capacity of Pagcor as well as the Philippine government, taking into account that about 5 to 6 percent of POGO revenues go to the National Treasury.

"Definitely, there would be an effect in terms of its contributions to the National Treasury. Automatically, 50 percent of our gross revenues go to the National Treasury. So whatever amount that we will not be able to generate because of the said closure will mean that we will no be able to remit whatever that amount is to the National Treasury, thereby affecting the national government's revenues," Tengco said.

This year, Pagcor is projecting about six and a half to 7 billion in revenue from POGOs.