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Philippine gambling regulator PAGCOR’s preparations for privatisation of its casino chain are moving forward, but a senior regulator has said a ban on foreign-facing online gambling operations (POGOs) will also scuttle the regulator’s own online gambling platform.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s announcement in July of a ban on POGOs is set to be backed up by a formal directive within weeks, but uncertainty continues within the gambling industry on how comprehensive the ban will be.
However, PAGCOR’s top official for land-based licensing has told Vixio GamblingCompliance that the vaunted foreign-facing business of future online gambling platform casinoFilipino.com will not be realised.
PAGCOR chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco’s initial vision for the initiative was catering to domestic online gamblers, said Daniel Cecilio, PAGCOR’s senior vice president for land-based licensing and regulation.
But this approach changed in mid-2023 when Tengco announced that casinoFilipino.com would serve customers globally, Cecilio said on Wednesday (September 11).
Marcos’ POGO ban now appears to have killed off these plans for a lucrative foreign-facing online space for PAGCOR, a feature the regulator had hoped could advance privatisation negotiations.
“Because of that announcement of the president, definitely offshore gaming in all its shapes and forms will be totally stopped,” Cecilio said.
Cecilio was speaking on the sidelines of the IAG Academy Summit in Manila, following a panel presentation in which he charted progress in the regulator’s privatisation drive.
Cecilio acknowledged ongoing “talks”, or rumours, in the industry and the media on the possible survival of POGO-style operations through formal or informal channels, but he added that any attempt to reboot a foreign-facing online gambling space would require new legislation.
“At this time, that’s what we are focusing on: by the end of this year, offshore gaming should stop,” he said.
“Now, are there talks about possibly a future [with foreign-facing online gambling]? Yes, I admit there are talks, but we are not at this time thinking about it as a regulator.”
The prospects of a legislated bounce-back for POGOs appear dim for the foreseeable future, given the hostility of lawmakers to POGOs, particularly in the Senate, which continues to interrogate Alice Guo, a former local mayor and Chinese national who impersonated a Philippine citizen and co-controlled the land where a major cyber-scamming operation was raided in March.
PAGCOR’s apparent acceptance that casinoFilipino.com will have to limit operations to local customers suggests that the Marcos ban will have actual teeth, although Vixio sources with knowledge of POGO operations maintain that the game is not up for foreign-facing gambling interests.
Cecilio said that PAGCOR officials are amending regulatory manuals for Casino Filipino branches and are preparing to amend the PAGCOR Charter, with a view to completing the separation of public and commercial operations by the next presidential election in 2028, he said.
The regulator is also committing serious resources to modernising and renovating its often dilapidated Casino Filipino casino floors and their banks of decades-old slot machines, Cecilio said.
Tengco told the summit in a keynote speech on Tuesday that PAGCOR will further cut domestic online gambling licensing fees, and that Casino Filipino branches will receive a total of almost 2,000 new slot machines to replenish their market appeal.
