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MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) said it is for regulating online gaming such as e-casino, e-bingo, and digital sports betting.
In an ambush interview on Tuesday, Pagcor chair Alejandro Tengco said the gray market in online gaming is huge.
“Our estimate is around P200 to P250 billion, and if we don’t regulate it, where will it go but only in the pockets of those who run these operations? The government does not benefit from that even one cent,” said Tengco in a mix of English and Filipino.
In a separate ambush interview on Tuesday, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian admitted that there have been no severe crimes related to online gaming so far. Still, he noted that individuals who entertain such often get addicted.
“So far, I have not seen anything apart from addiction, but addiction may get worse – the worst crime I have seen is the case of missing cockfighting enthusiasts. So, addiction can spread, especially among the police force,” he said in Filipino.
While no severe crimes have so far been linked to online gaming, Gatchalian emphasized the need to monitor it because online gaming sites, he said, are accessible to all.
“It’s easy to set up an online gaming account. You can give a fake name or fake age, it doesn’t check if you work for the government and that’s it. What I say is the most frightening thing here is that our enforcement agencies may get addicted to online gaming,” he added.
During the Senate panel on ways and means’ hearing on the Anti-Online Gambling Act, the Philippine National Police admitted that some of their personnel were dismissed because of dipping their toes to online gaming.
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