Philippine President Announces Gaming License Ban

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation has been ordered to shut down their license service. All existing licenses will be cancelled by the end of 2024.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the republic of the Philippines has announced a total ban for offshore gaming licenses . This major news was brought to the public during his State of the Nation speech in Manila on Tuesday the 22nd of July.

Starting immediately, all new and pending licenses will be banned. Also several operators will be shut down effective today. The rest of the casinos are ordered to seize operations by the end of the year.

Abuse of the System Got out of Hand

This shocking announcement is all due rising problems related to the POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gambling Operators), which has included serious issues. Organized crime has evidently used legal gambling entities to finance prostitution, money-laundering, online scamming and even human trafficking.

The Philippine Government has already raided several companies in cooperation with the Chinese officials in order to tackle these issues. Most of the companies have had strong ties to China, where gambling is illegal. Also the majority of the criminal activities such as scams have been towards Chinese Citizens.

President Xi Jingping of China already addressed this issue last year directly to president Marcos Jr. and last month China’s embassy in Singapore published a rare statement reminding their citizens about the illegality of gambling in their country.

The Philippines has not been keen to shut down their cashcow PAGCOR, which has provided their economy with billions of pesos and thousands of jobs since the introduction of the offshore scheme in 2016. Having had tense relations with China, it is clear that Beijing has had their influence on finally putting an end to the remote gambling licensing in the Philippines.