The July 2025 ASEAN capital market rankings paint a sobering picture for the Philippines.

According to ASEAN Markets data, Vietnam now leads the region with a market capitalization of $34.1 billion, followed by Thailand ($27.4 billion) and Singapore ($26.3 billion). Indonesia and Malaysia trail closely behind, but the Philippines sits last, with just $3.2 billion.

For months, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has struggled to break past the 6,000-level. This stagnation is brought about not only by global interest rate pressures but also by a deeper domestic issue: the redirection of capital from legitimate investment channels toward online gambling.

Online betting platforms have become ubiquitous, luring both casual and serious investors who now view gambling as a faster, more thrilling route to returns. This growing fascination with risk, detached from productive investment, drains liquidity from the PSE and weakens its ability to mirror and fund real economic growth.

The numbers are staggering. In 2024, gross gambling revenues (GGR) nationwide reached P410 billion ($7.16 billion), with online gambling alone contributing P154.5 billion — a 165-percent surge from the previous year.

Nearly half of PAGCOR’s revenue now comes from e-gaming and e-bingo, not land-based casinos. If even a small fraction of that money were redirected into the stock market through retail investing, mutual funds, or initial public offerings (IPOs), it could dramatically boost liquidity, broaden participation, and finally push the PSE beyond its longstanding plateau.

To reignite local investor confidence and deepen the market, one bold but practical move would be to list the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) on the PSE.

This approach has a clear precedent. Across Asia, governments have used state-owned enterprise (SOE) listings to jump-start underdeveloped capital markets. Singapore offers a prime example: its top three SOEs, namely, DBS Group Holdings, Singapore Telecommunications, and Singapore Airlines, together account for 27 percent of the country’s total market capitalization.

The OECD Capital Market Review of 2024 echoes this strategy, identifying two key ways to deepen the Philippine market: by encouraging more unlisted corporations to go public and by facilitating the listing of government-owned firms.

Singapore’s experience shows how this model delivers both fiscal and structural benefits, while our local market remains relatively shallow, with limited depth and participation.

Complementing this effort, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has consistently enforced its 20-percent minimum public float rule for listed companies. The policy aims to strengthen market liquidity, improve corporate governance, and expand opportunities for public ownership. Though some issuers have raised concerns about compliance costs, the SEC’s stance reflects a broader mission: to democratize capital markets and ensure that the gains of corporate growth are shared beyond controlling shareholders.

Ultimately, the PSE’s difficulty in crossing 6,000 isn’t just a story of weak market confidence; it’s a story of a missing narrative. We need to make investing in the Philippines exciting again, not as a gamble, but as a statement of confidence in transparency, enterprise, and the economy itself.

It’s time we placed our bets where they truly count, not on luck, but on the future of the Philippine market.