The Covid-19 pandemic, an unprecedented global tragedy, is to blame for the spread of another epidemic — online gambling — where highly tech-savvy Filipinos are at the center.

An expert in the gaming sector told Nosy Tarsee that the health contagion was a turning point for speeding up the transfer online of many business activities, including gambling.

The expert discussed how the significant growth of online gaming has played out in the Philippines. Worldwide, it is hard for land-based casinos to maintain a competitive offering for consumers without their own online gaming services, especially in jurisdictions where online gaming is permitted, such as the Philippines.

The expert said the phenomenon will stay for good since “it would be hard now to put the online gaming ‘genie’ back in the bottle,” as Filipinos have become adept at spending time online, including for playing either social or casino games.

A government-imposed ban on the trend would only encourage the gray market, which consumers would be expected to patronize, resulting in significant losses of state revenues.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, social and casino-style games became available on digital payment platforms’ apps, and the Philippines was no exception. The meteoric rise of payment platforms also occurred as people stayed indoors.

The social problem of addiction to online games came as a consequence.

In August this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ordered electronic wallet (e-wallet) services in the country, some of which had aggregated app-based gambling providers via their payment platforms, to delink their payment services from gaming sites.

At one point, the largest e-wallet provider reported 94 million (e-wallet) users out of a population of 115 million, representing a significant base for any online service provider.

The pandemic had shortened the timeframe for gaming to migrate to a typically online format, from “10 to 15 years” to “two or three.”

The expert said the government must adopt self-exclusion protocols to fight gambling addiction.

In the United Kingdom, if you self-exclude on one website, none of the thousands of regulated websites will allow you to play.

Protecting consumers remains the bottom line, even for online casinos.