The chairman and chief executive of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), Alejandro Tengco, says the agency is against bills proposing to ban all forms of online gambling in the country. His comments were made on Tuesday at a hearing at the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, according to local media reports.
Mr Tengco (pictured) said the online gaming sector should be well regulated, in order to collect more taxes to the government and prevent the proliferation of illegal betting.
The official said that if the proposed bills to ban online gambling in the nation were passed, they could lead to a loss of PHP40 billion (US$685.5 million) in tax revenues.
On the sidelines of the hearing, Mr Tengco told reporters that Pagcor’s estimate for revenue derived from illegal online operations is “around PHP200 billion to PHP250 billion”.
“If we don’t regulate it, where will it go but only in the pockets of those who run these [illegal] operations? The government does not benefit from that even one cent,” he stated.
In late June, Philippine senator Joel Villanueva urged other members of the country’s Senate to pass Senate Bill 1281, one of the bills that aims to prohibit all forms of online gambling in the nation.
Mr Villanueva said in his June statement accompanying the bill that the country’s gaming regulator needed to “step up its game in shutting down” all forms of online gambling.
The bill submitted by Mr Villanueva calls for “prohibiting online gambling and the placing of wagers or bets through the Internet or any form of online gambling activities”. The document proposes that any person involved in online gambling shall be sentenced to prison for up to six months or pay fine of up to PHP500,000.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Pagcor officials said that since 2022 the agency had worked with other departments to block 5,793 out of a total of 7,747 online gambling websites and apps deemed “illegal”.
Mr Tengco noted that the crackdown had forced some illegal operators to move towards registering with the government.
“In the last 45 days, three big companies involved in illegal operations or not registered, have already come up and manifested that they already want to be registered,” said the Pagcor CEO.
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